“Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.” Psalm 139:23 NIV
These are anxious times. The anxiety in the atmosphere is palpable. Those who genuinely struggle with anxiety issues, well, these past 6 months must have been unimaginably painful.
I have often said that fear and anger are first cousins. There has never been more evidence of this than the anguish and pain that floods our social media daily. Theories and counter theories. Doctors and other doctors. You show me your doctors and I’ll show you mine, and then, let’s fight! I can feel the anxiety creep up even as I type those words. The fighting. My God. The fighting.
Jesus said, “A house divided against itself CAN. NOT. STAND.” He didn’t say, “might not” or “perhaps it won’t.” He said, “CANNOT.”
The one who is the thief of joy and the destroyer of lives is sowing discord by the barrel full…and we are buying it wholesale. There is a growing tendency to regard those who think differently than us in increasingly derogatory terms. We are growing enemies in our thoughts and that is moving into our hearts. Oh! No wonder so many who love the Lord are feeling crushed in their spirits! This manner of thinking and being is in direct counterpoint to the love of Jesus that is being poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.
The good news, beloved, (and there is ALWAYS good news), is there is a remedy for our souls. There is healing and needed accountability in Jesus. I may not be able to control what others are saying or doing; that has ALWAYS been true. I CAN control MY REACTIONS to the discourse around me. My attitudes. My thoughts. My words.
If I am feeling crushed and anxious, my heart must cry out: “Search me and know me” and to show me if there be any way in me that is unpleasing to Him. Herein lies the source of fear and anxiety…being out of step with the Prince of Peace. We must repent of any and all things that we have thought, said or done that was displeasing to Him, is that we’re able to say, “May the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to You, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer!”
The Love of God is the antidote for fear. God’s love perfects us in ways we can never do for ourselves.
Beloved. Let us cry out to God with one voice: “Search me, O God, and know me.”
~ Debbie Ecker
