Nashville, Tennessee, United States - The Upper Room Daily Devotional “Cast Out Fear” for Friday, 5 December 2014 - Scripture: Psalm 40

Nashville, Tennessee, United States - The Upper Room Daily Devotional “Cast Out Fear” for Friday, 5 December 2014 - Scripture: Psalm 40: A David Psalm
1-3 I waited and waited and waited for God.
    At last he looked; finally he listened.
He lifted me out of the ditch,
    pulled me from deep mud.
He stood me up on a solid rock
    to make sure I wouldn’t slip.
He taught me how to sing the latest God-song,
    a praise-song to our God.
More and more people are seeing this:
    they enter the mystery,
    abandoning themselves to God.
4-5 Blessed are you who give yourselves over to God,
    turn your backs on the world’s “sure thing,”
    ignore what the world worships;
The world’s a huge stockpile
    of God-wonders and God-thoughts.
Nothing and no one
    comes close to you!
I start talking about you, telling what I know,
    and quickly run out of words.
Neither numbers nor words
    account for you.
6 Doing something for you, bringing something to you—
    that’s not what you’re after.
Being religious, acting pious—
    that’s not what you’re asking for.
You’ve opened my ears
    so I can listen.
7-8 So I answered, “I’m coming.
    I read in your letter what you wrote about me,
And I’m coming to the party
    you’re throwing for me.”
That’s when God’s Word entered my life,
    became part of my very being.
9-10 I’ve preached you to the whole congregation,
    I’ve kept back nothing, God—you know that.
I didn’t keep the news of your ways
    a secret, didn’t keep it to myself.
I told it all, how dependable you are, how thorough.
    I didn’t hold back pieces of love and truth
For myself alone. I told it all,
    let the congregation know the whole story.
11-12 Now God, don’t hold out on me,
    don’t hold back your passion.
Your love and truth
    are all that keeps me together.
When troubles ganged up on me,
    a mob of sins past counting,
I was so swamped by guilt
    I couldn’t see my way clear.
More guilt in my heart than hair on my head,
    so heavy the guilt that my heart gave out.
13-15 Soften up, God, and intervene;
    hurry and get me some help,
So those who are trying to kidnap my soul
    will be embarrassed and lose face,
So anyone who gets a kick out of making me miserable
    will be heckled and disgraced,
So those who pray for my ruin
    will be booed and jeered without mercy.
16-17 But all who are hunting for you—
    oh, let them sing and be happy.
Let those who know what you’re all about
    tell the world you’re great and not quitting.
And me? I’m a mess. I’m nothing and have nothing:
    make something of me.
You can do it; you’ve got what it takes—
    but God, don’t put it off.
Moses said to Joshua, “It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.”[Deuteronomy 31:8 (NRSV)]
On the news I saw that the storm damage was horrific. Reporters interviewed residents who were not yet allowed to return home to see what damage their homes might have suffered. Victims wondered: Is my house still standing? How much damage? How do I face the future?
Fear of the future can include so many different forms: job insecurity, fear for a loved one’s safety, financial challenges, and medical crises — to name a few. My personal fear of the future is this: in the next day or two, I will find out the results of a mammogram. My mother died of breast cancer, so I’m at increased risk. I’m usually able to give my cancer fears to God, but since the mammogram, the worried thoughts have multiplied and wreaked havoc with my imagination. Like a flood, the thoughts have been overwhelming me, and I have felt as if I were drowning.
But in the midst of this anxiety, Bible promises reassure me that the God who has always stood by me in the past is with me today and is already in my future. I realize ugly and difficult stuff may lie ahead, so I strive to have faith. I know that I can trust God no matter what I face.
Read more from the author, here.
"Trust Instead of Worry"
In Matthew 6:27, Jesus asks, “Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?” He answers the question, “Of course not.” My mammogram was negative. BUT what did happen I had never, ever worried about -- A stroke! My parents and grandparents had never had a stroke, so I never gave it much thought.
One minute I was fine and the next minute I knew if I wasn’t on the floor, I would fall. The floor was tilted. The walls were at angles. The next thing I remember was riding in the ambulance. Next came the tests and a doctor telling me, “You have had a rare kind of stroke.” Instead of one side of my body being affected, I couldn’t walk. I literally forgot how to walk. He explained that with physical therapy I could learn how to walk again. It would take time and work but I could learn. They transferred me to a rehabilitation facility and I worked three hours a day to learn how to walk. My brother-in-law referred to it as boot camp. After three weeks of inpatient therapy and two months of outpatient therapy, I can walk again – without a walker or a cane.
Part of the therapy included steps. See those three steps in the picture. They were my Mount Everest. I had to talk myself through each step. I had to listen to the instructions of the therapist. More than that, I had to hear God say, “I am holding you by the hand. Trust me. You can do this.” About 40 or 50 times later, I could climb those steps without stopping. Wow. I felt like I had climbed a mountain. I could actually feel new pathways develop in my brain.
Now the only time I have some difficulty walking is at night or on uneven surfaces, especially when I’m overly tired. I continue to hear God say, “Just trust me.”
When the why questions came to mind, he reminded me to trust. When the how long (until I can walk normally) questions popped up, again he said, “I am with you and will give you all the help you need – sufficient for today. Don’t worry about tomorrow.” As a result of the stroke, I have increased my trust.
Worry is a strange thing – we can worry about things that never will happen and not worry about things that do happen. An actual study found that 85% of what we worry about never happens. So – why worry when we can pray and give it all to God with trust. We can totally trust our creator. He made us and he can fix us, including replacing worry with trust.[Deb Vellines]
The Author: Deb Vellines (Illinois, USA)
Thought for the Day: With God beside me, I can be fearless.
Prayer: Loving Father, help us to remember that you are with us in all circumstances. Cast out our fear of the future. Amen.
Prayer focus: Breast-cancer patients
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