Episode Transcript
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I would like to spend some time
here in Psalm Sixty two and and think
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about some of these themes with you, that we might be encouraged. This
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does relate to the passage in genesis
twenty one. I won't read it now,
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but they're there's a conflict within the
family of Abraham and Ishmael and Hagur
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are sent out. Abraham's heart is
distressed. Hag are as hard as distressed.
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Ishmael is distressed, crying to the
Lord, and the Lord hears them.
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He provides for them there in the
Wilderness. It says that Hag are
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separates herself from her son a bowshot
away. I'm not an archer and I
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didn't look it up, so I
don't know how far that is, but
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my guess is that it's far enough
to get some distance where maybe the cries
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are muffled, can't hear him as
harshly. They were planning on dying and
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giving up in the Lord provides for
them there. And there's similar themes here
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in Psalm Sixty two. I notice
in verse three. I ask you if
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you've ever felt like this. How
long will all of you attack a man,
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to batter him like a leaning wall
or a tottering fence. Have you
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ever felt like a tottering fence or
a leaning wall? Right, a strong
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wall is built into the ground,
right. You typically don't build a wall
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right on top of the ground.
You trench down into the ground, you
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lay down your bricks and then from
there you build up and you cement it
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in and you reinforce it and you
make sure it's strong. A tottering wall,
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though, is one that people are
liable to kick over. There's one
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over by where my my kids go
to school and I drive by there occasionally
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and it seems like every time I
go by there's another brick missing. It's
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falling apart and people see that and
they take an advance, take advantage of
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it. They say, well,
can climb over it, it's easier,
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right, and just knock out another
brick. What's one more? And soon
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the wall falls apart. And that's
the picture here. Like a leaning wall,
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a tottering fence, people come and
attack him this, this thing is
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weak. We can get him while
he's while he's weak, while he's down,
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and we feel sometimes we feel like
that. We feel what we might
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call anxiety. We feel anxious,
we feel worried, we feel weak,
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in a position where we are stressed
because we're not okay, or we feel
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like we're not okay, we're under
threat, we're not going to get what
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we need, and our chest gets
ti ate and our minds start to race
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and we we worried. But notice
how the Psalm starts. For God alone
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my soul weights and silence. From
him comes my salvation. He alone is
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my rock and my salvation my fortress. I shall not be greatly shaken.
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Now, imagine you're a tottering fence, broken wall, and you were worried
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about being knocked down. You,
you might imagine, hoping that maybe nobody
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will come right, maybe the wind
won't blow too strong, maybe I can
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hold on tighter for a little bit
longer, thinking about these various external circumstances
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that we hope that will change,
that will save us. And we certainly
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feel that way when we feel anxious, when we feel weak, when we
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feel like greatly shaken, and we
we get a nervous and stressed and we
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start scanning quickly around right what's going
to help me? Maybe I can clear
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up my schedule, maybe if I
get more money, maybe if this person
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will stop doing what they're doing.
All kinds of number of things. Maybe
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if I could just for once something, you know, Calm Down, r
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e. whether it's internal or external. We look for these things, right.
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We look for something in our world, in ourselves, that can fix
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our problems. David here points us
to the real solution. When we find
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ourselves and situations where we don't know
what to do, when we feel overwhelmed,
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when we feel like things are not
going to be okay, he tells
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us, through his example, through
he's been's words, inspired by the spirit,
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through this confession of faith, to
trust in God for God alone.
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Yeah, I wonder if he screamed
this sometimes. Right, he says in
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verse five about silence for God alone. Oh my soul, weight in silence.
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Right, he talks to himself.
He says stop, wait, and
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maybe there were times to when he
he called it out loud and told himself,
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soul, wait. Either way,
the reminders this that God alone is
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our rock, God alone is his
Salvaser and his fortress. I shall not
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be greatly shaken. I shall not
be greatly shaken. I shall not be
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greatly shaken. Why not? Because
the wind will stop blowing or the enemies
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will stop attacking, but because of
who God is. That's the promise of
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scripture. Now David certainly recognizes that
there are other forces at play here,
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and he speaks to his enemies.
How long the leave me alone? How
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long will you all attack a man
to batter him? They only plan to
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thrust him down from his high position. They take pleasure and falsehood. They
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bless what they mouths, they inwardly
curse. This reminds me, of course,
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of our Lord Right, behold the
king of the Jews. Right,
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these kind of claims of praise outwardly, but inwardly it's, of course,
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cursing and mocking and and all of
that. And then David repeats it.
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A reminder of the repetition of these
things that we need in our lives.
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How we need to tell ourselves these
things over and over again, for God
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alone. Oh my soul weighed in
silence. Wait, wait, wait,
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for my hope is from him.
He only is my rock and my salvation,
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my fortress. I shall not be
shaken. Oh God, or on
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God rests my salvation and my glory, my Mighty Rock, my refuge is
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God. So David speaks to his
own heart as indeed, we always do
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do. This is prayer, to
speak to the Lord, to speak to
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our hearts as well, to have
a conversation and say, soul, trust
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in the Lord, Lord, help
my soul, help me, provide for
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me, care for me. And
then David speaks outwardly, says trust in
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him at all times. O People, pour out your heart before him.
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God is a refuge for us,
and this, of course, is not
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just David speak speaking. This is
the Holy Spirit who inspired these words,
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so beloved, here, these words
for you, your own ears. Trust
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in him at all times is the
word of the Lord. Pour out your
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heart before him. Why? God
is a refuge for us. To help
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remind us of this and remind us
of the difference between God and the things
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that we often depend on, we
then have versus eight and ten. I
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love these. Those of low estate
are but a breath, those of high
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estate are but a delusion. In
the balances they go up, they are
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together lighter than a breath. So
this is like when we say that God
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created things, visible and invisible.
This is our way of saying that God
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created everything, and this is the
way of the psalmist saying that everyone is
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who you I'm going to get all
my double negative is wrong here. You
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don't need to worry about anyone.
There we go. You don't need to
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worry about anyone. Those of a
lot low estate, those of high estate.
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What does he say? In the
balances, they go up. The
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image here is if you've ever seen
those, those balances where there's a pole
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in the middle and a pull across
and then chains going down on both sides
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and then maybe two baskets or or
plates. All right, perhaps you've seen
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lady justice right, who holds those
balances and that symbol of that balance there.
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The idea here is that if something
is weighty, something is heavy,
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if you put it on one side, what happens? Goes down. If
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it's not heavy, it goes up. So the question is is when the
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king drops his money bag on the
table and says, if you do what
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I say, you will receive this, or when the soldier thrusts his sword
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into the ground and says, beware, I claim this is my own right,
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what is the what is the weight
that is carried in those moments?
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The weight of power, the weight
of high position or the weight of low
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position? How do how are we
to evaluate that when we worry about the
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pressures and things that are around us, the Scripture says that together they are
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lighter than a breath. Might be
fun this evening to go home and take
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out your electronic scale, put it
on the counters, zeroed it out,
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and then breathe on it and see
what happens. Of course, a breath
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doesn't even stay there. Right.
A breath moves across the scale. You
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can't even weigh it because it doesn't
even stay there. Really, and and
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the Lord says, the word says
that these pressures that around us, these
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pressures that are inside of us,
they are lighter than a breath, lighter
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than a breath. So don't trust
them. Put No trust in extortion,
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set no vain hopes on robberies.
If riches increased, set your heart not
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on them. And so in concludes
with this. Once God has spoken.
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Twice have I heard this. That
power, true power, belongs to God
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and that to you, O Lord, belongs steadfast love, for you will
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render to a man according to his
work. Well, what about this last
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sentence? You will render a man
according to his work. How are we
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to that if, for the whole
Psalm God has been saying trust me,
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trust me, trust me. And
now he says I'll pay you what you
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do. Does it feel like it
takes it away a little bit, like
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the strength and the power and the
dependence on God. Now, all of
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a sudden he's going to render to
us according to our work. We get
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a little fearful again, please.
I do when I read that at first.
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But remember this. Ask Yourself,
what is the chief work of the
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one who trusts in the Lord,
and what is the chief work of the
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one who does not trust in the
Lord? Right, because this is where
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the issue turns. The one who
does not trust in the Lord trusts in
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what his own works is on wealth, that's fame, it's read Iputation,
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all those kinds of things. That's
what he trusts and the Lord will render
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to him his reward. What is
Dus men, which of course, is
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very light, not worthy. What
is the work of the one who trusts
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in the Lord? Well, it
is the work of faith. And what
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is the work of faith? It
is receiving the blessings of the Lord.
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It is not working ourselves else to
earn ourselves award. The work of faith,
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as scripture calls it, is trusting
in the Lord to receive his reward,
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the reward that he eared, when
we put our trust in the Lord.
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That is our work, when we
rest on him and receive all of
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his work given to us. That's
what our work is and that's what our
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reward is. And so it is
a call to us both. It is
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it is both a warning to not
trust in yourself and it is again an
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encouragement and an assurance to us to
trust in him. We remember, remember
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that this is our chief thing,
it is the thing, the main thing
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that we do. Everything else flows
from this point right, flows from faith
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and trusting in God. And so
my question to you then, is,
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will God provide? Will God provide
for you? There are a lot of
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things that we need, aren't there? The scriptures themselves say that we need
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them. Food and clothing our examples, but we could add to others as
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we need friendship, we need safety, we need justice, we need dignity,
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we need work, we need rest. These are the things that we
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need. We need hope, we
need love, we need these things in
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our lives and there are all kinds
of things that threaten all of those things
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and more all the time. This
world is a hard place and when we
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don't get these things, or when
we feel like we may not get these
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things, what happens? But we
feel greatly shaken, we feel nervous and
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anxious and worried. So the question
again is, will God provide? Will
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he provide, yes or no?
Will he provide? Because if he won't,
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if the words here in Psalm Sixty
two are not true, then we
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have every reason to be greatly shaken, because there are all kinds of problems
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all around us. But what if? What if what God says is true?
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In light of that, I'd like
to read a few more passages of
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scripture to you. First, Matthew, chapter six. Matthew Chapter Six,
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Verse Twenty Five. Therefore, I
tell you, do not be anxious about
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your life, what you will eat
or what you will drink, nor about
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your body, what you will put
on. Is Not life more than food
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and the body more than clothing?
Look at the birds of the year.
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They neither so nor reap nor gather
into Barnes, and yet your heavenly father
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feeds them. Are they not of
more value than they and which of you,
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by being anxious, can add a
single hour to his span of life?
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And why are you anxious about clothing. Consider the lilies of the field,
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how they grow? They neither toil
nor spin. Yet I tell you,
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even Solomon, in all his glory, was not a Rabe like one
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of these. But if God so
close the grass of the field, which
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today is alive and tomorrow is thrown
into the oven, will he not much
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more clothe you, oh you of
little faith? Therefore, do not be
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anxious about do not be anxious saying
what shall we eat? What shall we
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drink, what shall we wear?
For the gentile seek after these things,
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and your heavenly father knows that you
need them all, but seek first the
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Kingdom of God and his righteousness,
and all these things will be out of
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to you. Therefore, do not
be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will
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be anxious for itself sufficient, for
the day is its own trouble. You
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See, what God is saying is
there's various arguments he's giving. Says,
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look at the flowers, I take
care of them. Look at the birds
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in another place, he says.
Look at the Ravens in Luke Twelve,
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he says, consider the Ravens Thine. They neither so nor reap. They
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have no store house nor barn,
and yet God feeds them. They literally
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are arlity. I was going to
say living hand to mouth, but they
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don't have hands. They're literally living
no mouth whatever. They pick food up
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off the ground. They have no
storehouses, like there's no backup plan for
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the Raven. He eats what he
is given. That's it. Now that
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creates a little bit of anxiety.
And me, even as I'm preaching about
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drop, beaying anxious. Right,
that is hard. That is hard to
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remember, which is why we're spending
time in pressing these things and and and
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and and focusing on them. But
if you're asking yourself, as perhaps I
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am, what's wrong with me?
Like, why am I anxious, even
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in hearing a sermon about not being
anxious, or even in giving a sermon
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about not being anxious, remember that
God provides even for that. God doesn't
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expect us to get our inward lives
all perfectly in order before we can come
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to him and trust him. Trust
me now. Trust me in your sin,
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trust me in your anxiety. Trust
me while you are worrying. It's
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not about getting to you know,
this is zen moment and then saying all
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right now, I will trust in
the Lord. Right, it's right now.
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In this moment, in this in
this way, Psalm one hundred forty
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five says, the eyes of all
look to you and you give them food
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in their due seas, and you
open your hand and you satisfy the desire
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of every living of every living thing. So why is this so difficult for
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us when the Scriptures so plainly black
and white, say God will provide?
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Why do we struggle so much?
Well, there's different reasons. I think
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some of them are these. One
is that we don't know when or how
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God will provide, and that can
be difficult. Another is that we don't
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sometimes, I think, we wonder
if God really wants to care for us.
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Do we do doubt the black and
white kind of promises? God says
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this and we say I don't know. Right, and if you doubt that
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God will provide, well then you
will be anxious that he won't provide.
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This is pretty simple. I wish
I could come to you and say that
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now here's a bunch of arguments that
will sort of flip the switch in you,
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and now you're going to be set
and and and now you you can
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you can know and have certainty that
God I will always provide for you.
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And you're going to be sort of
internally okay and externally to but the thing
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is, like, I can't just
convince you of that. I can't rationalize
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the way to this. I mean
we can point to examples, like scripture
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does. Right, let me say, look at the lilies, look at
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the Ravens, right, and that's
helpful to us. But ultimately it is
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a question of what we're talked about
earlier, faith. Will we believe what
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God says or not? It's really
that simple. If we believe and we
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trust in him, then that is
that is the answer. So then,
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going back to the question, why
is this so hard? The answer to
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that is, of course sin.
Right, sin does not trust the word
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of the Lord. It's not merely
that there's a feeling and emotion inside of
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us, a great shaking that is
there. That is a problem and it's
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uncomfortable, but the deeper problem is, of course, Sin. It's lack
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of trust in the word of God, and that's all of us. Every
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single one of US struggle with this. And as long as we want control,
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as long as we want to know
what's going to happen next and when
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it's going to happen and how it's
going to happen. As long as we're
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striving after finding our solutions in our
minds, in our strength, in our
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in our hearts and the world,
then we're not looking to the Lord it.
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And that's why David, I think, is so clear and he repeats
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it over and over again, not
only in Psalm Sixty two, but why
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the Lord repeats it over it over
again for us. I am your refuge
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because we need to hear it,
because we doubt it. But I will
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say this simply to proclaim God's promise
to you. These things. I will
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finish with this. Number One,
God provides for us in this life.
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It's true. He provides for us
in this life. You can look at
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today. Did you eat today?
Are you wearing clothes? Did you have
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a how house, a place over
your head, a place to go,
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air conditioning, lights? Did you
drive a car? I fancy eyeglasses,
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all kinds of things. Does God
provide for us? Yes, He provides
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for us. Number One, he
provides for us in this life. Number
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two, he provides for us in
the next life. Remember that bit about
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the reward. God will give the
reward. Think about it. This from
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Roman six, the wages of sin. You, hopefully you to know this
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verse. The wages of sin is
death. Right, the wages of sin
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is death, but the free gift
of God is eternal life. What is
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God? Does God provide for us
in this life? Yes, does he
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provide for US eternal life, blessed, heavenly, glorious life forever? Yes,
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yes, he does. Does God
Prom a number three? Does God
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provide for us, not only in
this life and in the next, but
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also for our doubt here and now? Are struggles here and now, our
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anxieties here now? Yeah, he
provides for that too. He gives us
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his scriptures, he gives us our
words, he gives us this truth over
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and over again. He creates a
whole institution called the church and puts officers
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in it and fills it with people
so that we can be constantly reminded over
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and over and over again that God
provides for us. Thousands of years God
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has been doing this, week after
week after week. I will provide,
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I will provide. The Lord's Supper, which will partake of in a little
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bit, is yet another way that
God does this. He preaches this promise
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from his word, he gives to
us these promises and then he says.
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You know what, on top of
that, now I'm going to give you
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a visible sign and seal that what
I'm saying is true. Just like God
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provided the Manna for the Israelites on
the Wilderness, I'm going to provide for
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you bread now, and more than
bread and water, I'm going to give
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you bread and wine, so you
might celebrate and rejoice in my provision and
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for you, all of it pointing
to Christ, Christ who is our reward,
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Christ who puts aside the wages of
sin, Christ who die so that
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there's no more enmity between us and
God, constant relational conflict between us and
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God. But what the Roman says
is peace. There's therefore now no condemnation
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for those who are in Christ Jesus, but instead justification. Peace with God,
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with one another, with our world. We're gonna be okay. We
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might feel like a tottering fence,
but we're in the hands of the Lord,
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God Almighty. He gave his own
son to die for us and establish
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these things that he might be,
as effusion says, lavish us with His
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grace, not just, you know, throwing us a bone every now and
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then, but just filling us with
things. And this brings me to my
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last point. If God provides us
for in this so for us in this
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life and he provides for us in
the next life, and the scriptures say
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he also provides for our doubt and
our weakness as well. Here's the last
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thing that I want you to remember
is that the provisions that he gives to
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us now are preparing us for what's
to come, and that's important because a
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lot of times we can, I
think as Christians, we can accept,
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okay, God will provide for me
now. Okay, God will pro yes,
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God's really going to provide for me
after I die and I go to
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heaven. But then again, what
about right now? Because I know that
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sometimes he doesn't provide right. Isn't
that true that sometimes we need to pay
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a bill in the money? Isn't
there? has anyone known a Christian who
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has died right? Sometimes God says
No. Sometimes God says no so strongly
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that a person actually dies. No
more earthly provision for you. Now.
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Why? My question here is,
did God fail that person? Did God
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stop providing right? The answer is
no. And why why is it no?
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It's no because the provisions God gives
to us in this life are exactly
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what we need to prepare us for
the next so when we die, it's
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because we don't need anything else.
Imagine you were going on a camping trip
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and you had a buddy who you
know want, had a bunch of gear.
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You know he's gonna help you out
and he gives you a tent like
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thanks, or really appreciate it.
Brings another tenth the next day and another
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tent the next day. Next thing
you know, you gotta you know,
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yard full of a thousand tents.
Right, this is not a blessing anymore,
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is it? Right? You only
need what you need and once you
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have it, you're good rate.
To have extra provisions when you don't need
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them becomes only a burden. And
the thing is is that God knows exactly
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what we need, exactly down to
the last calorie, down to the last
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penny, the last thread of cloth. He knows what you need. And
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then one day he'll say, and
now you have all you need, come
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and join me and have everything that
you could ever desire from a holy heart.
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We don't need to worry about the
things in this life because God will
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provide them. He will provide them
abundantly and when he says, no,
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it's because we don't need them.
He's preparing us, he and he uses
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even sometimes our lack to provide for
us the greater things of himself, of
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giving US himself in his faithfulness,
his steadfast love and and all the rest.
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So, if God provides for everything
we need in this life and he
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provides for our times of doubting and
he provides for us in the life to
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come, know that you can trust
him. This is what his word says
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to us. He says, he
says to us that we are sons and
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daughters of God and he loves to
provide for us. God is not a
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begrudging father. He gives to us
out of love. And so, the
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next time you feel your mind racing, your heart shaking, tightness in your
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chest and you're worried, I'm not
going to be okay, say to your
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soul, wait, be silent,
trust in the Lord. I will not
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be greatly shaken because God is my
refuge. God alone is my salvation.
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He will take care of me.
And maybe you won't instantly feel better,
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but that's not the goal. Remember, the goal is to trust in God,
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trust in the Lord and know that
even in our weakness, even in
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our most difficult spots, he is
taking care of you. Praise be to
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God.
