JoySample

DAY 5: I WILL NOT BE SHAKEN

Who can be joyful if they are worried that they are going to lose it all? Sometimes, the hardest part of going through trials isn’t even the trial we are going through. It’s the fear that the situation you are facing is going to rob you of the good in your life. We think of everything we’ve earned and hold dear, and cringe as the enemy threatens to set us back to ground zero. We dread having to start over, having to recover what we haven’t even lost yet. Sometimes, we believe the lie to such an extent, that we sabotage ourselves by giving up or not doing our best because we are so afraid to fail. But God’s word, through Psalm 55:22 gives us two promises. If we can learn to believe and live by these promises, we will be much more likely to maintain an attitude of joy when things don’t go our way. The first promise is that He will sustain us. 

The word “sustain” according to Webster’s has two definitions: 

• The first, is “to provide what is needed for someone to continue.” When the word of God tells us that He will sustain us, it means that He is going to take on the responsibility of making sure we have everything we need to go the distance. It means that when the road gets tough and it feels like we can’t go on, He is going to provide whatever it is that we lack to make sure we don’t give up. 
• The second definition of the word ‘sustain’ is “to hold up the weight of something.” If you notice, the verse we are studying starts out with a reference to something heavy: our burdens (all of our worries, fears, and inadequacies) and it tells us to cast them on the Lord because he will “sustain” (hold up the weight). The promise is this: we don’t have to be nervous about failing, because if anything is ever too heavy, He will hold up the weight for us. 

If we stop to reflect on the significance of this, and let it sink into our hearts, there’s truly nothing that should ever scare us or make us feel like we will not succeed. Neither stress nor fear are necessary because our burdens don’t have to be sustained by our own strength but simply given over to God, who is more than able to sustain them.

The next promise in this verse is that the Lord will “never permit the righteous to be moved.” That fear that we all have of being displaced isn’t as realistic as the enemy would like us to think. God has given us His word that He will not allow anyone or anything to move us from where we are supposed to be. Through Jesus, we have been made righteous (2 Corinthians 5:21) and through our relationship with God we are given confidence that this word is ours to keep and to believe. We will not be knocked around, shaken, or moved. The things that we work hard for, that God has allowed us to build, are ours to keep, if only we remember to cast our burdens on Him.

Thoughts for Meditation: 

Are you weary or burdened? Take some time to write why… Reflect on how you feel after making a sincere effort to give God your burdens, what changes? What are ways you can make casting your burdens on Him a more frequent habit?

Prayer:

Lord, there are times when I feel so weary and weighed down. I need you to help me, and give me rest for my soul. I’m tired of trying to carry all of my burdens on my own. I’m willing to lay them on you and trust that you will take them from me.