Soul, Remember, In Your Pains...

"The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice."  Psalm 97:1

Spurgeon's thoughts: "There are no real causes for anxiety as long as this blessed sentence is true. On earth the Lord's power controls the rage of the wicked as readily as the rage of the sea; His love refreshes the poor with mercy as easily as the earth with showers. Majesty gleams in flashes of lightning amid the tempest's horrors, and the glory of the Lord is seen in its grandeur in the fall of empires and the crash of thrones. In all our conflicts and tribulations, we may behold the hand of the divine King."

                                       

God is God; He sees and hears

All our troubles, all our tears.

Soul, forget not, in your pains,

God o'er all forever reigns.

Fear not death, nor Satan's thrusts,

God defends who in Him trusts;

Soul, remember, in your pains,

God o'er all forever reigns.

For this life's long night of sadness

He will give us peace and gladness.

Soul, remember, in your pains,

God o'er all forever reigns. 

Candy's thoughts: I have to admit that my first response to this devotional was something like "easier said than done."  Not the holiest of impulses, I know. But then I remembered that throwing off anxiety must be active and not passive. I often tell my friends in GriefShare that we all have to "lean into our grief," meaning we have to work hard in order to heal. We can't just try to convince ourselves that losing someone doesn't hurt and so we should stop crying or being sad. Instead, in both grief and anxiety we have to confront our fear of the future and then do something - read God's loving promises to us in His Word, pray for relief and a return to stability, preach the gospel to ourselves daily, seek out godly counsel, find comfort in serving others, etc. We can't simply ignore our emotions or distract ourselves with meaningless activities. We have to "lean into" the trouble we face and "lean upon" the Lord with appropriate action.  Soul, remember, in your pains, God o'er all forever reigns.