God Winning Our Hearts
How long will I store up anxious thoughts within me? Agony in my mind every day?
Psalm 13:2
David was under going a trial on the outside through his tribulations that caused an inner trial of his heart of doubt. We lack the ability to understand our surroundings with precision, so often what appears to be disaster and oppression is merely the hand of God reminding us to look to Him. Difficulties do not mean He has forgotten us or His promises to us; the only thing they can possibly mean is that it appears to us that perhaps He has, but often, to us, it looks like rain and no rain falls. If we are unable to forecast the weather we are certainly unable to predict the thoughts of God based on our perceptions and feelings.
David prayed the right prayer. The battle was not in the heart of God, to win God to David’s side; the problem was to win David’s heart to God’s side. It was the thoughts and the agony that stirred those thoughts that was his greatest threat. When difficulty comes, as it often does, God has not changed His mind about His affection toward us, or His commitment to His will and to His children.
Sometimes in life we must simply choose to believe in the promise of God in the face of what appears to us as overwhelming evidence to the contrary. This is where faith takes a stand – not faith in our presumptuous dreams or prideful desires, but faith in the rightness of God’s character and the trueness of God’s purpose. Faith loosens the shackles of fear and worry over what might happen and gives us energy to face challenges with confidence in God and enthusiasm. Here is where we must learn to live as we grow, not in our good feelings, nor in the appearance of circumstances that can so easily confuse our dull minds, nor even on the faith of others, though that might encourage us greatly. No, we must live on and in the promises of God. He will answer us according to His wisdom, with His riches, and in His timing. Grasping that by faith takes worry away and gives us energy to rise up with wings as eagles.
Prayer:
Lord, let our faith determine our perspective, not our perspectives determine our faith. Amen.