2020 has been quite a year!  We have seen fear quickly spread across the whole world causing churches, businesses , and schools to shut their doors.  Cancellations of weddings, graduations, parties, vacations, family gatherings, funerals, and sporting events have become the “new normal.”  Mandates, masks, gloves, sanitizing, and social distancing are overwhelming.  Then throw into the mix savage fires, deadly hurricanes, mass rioting, and destruction of cities, statues, properties, and lives.  Racial tension has soared.  Political differences have been magnified.  National dissension and unrest has accelerated.   Fear and terror have swept the nation with a vengeance.  

Dear Christian, are you gripped with panic and trepidation?  Are you dreading what tomorrow or next year holds?  FRET NOT!  We are admonished in the 37th Psalm of David to “Fret not thyself because of evil doers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity.  For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb.”  God’s desire and longing for us is to live faith-filled, happy, blessed lives even in the midst of apparent mayhem.  He lists five things in verses 3-8 that we can DO to overcome fright, worry, and displeasure.

1.  TRUST IN THE LORD AND DO GOOD!

Have faith in the One who reigns!

Have faith in the One who spoke into existence the heaven, the earth, and all life!

Have faith in the One who knows your name, loves you, and sent His Son to die for you!

BUT – don’t just have faith – GO OUT AND DO GOOD!

Go soulwinning!

Pass out tracts!

Tell someone, anyone, and everyone about Jesus!

Clean your house!

Make a homemade, healthy meal for your family!

Make a meal for someone else!

Make a visit!

Pick up trash around the church house!

Give someone a smile and an encouraging word!

Write someone and tell them something nice! 

A special promise is made to those who trust in Him: “…So shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.”

FRET NOT – TRUST IN THE LORD AND DO GOOD!

1. DELIGHT THYSELF ALSO IN THE LORD!

There are some luxuries that bring great pleasure to me.  A pedicure is AMAZING!  While soaking tired, sore feet in a tiny bubbling jacuzzi filled with fragrant, warm water, a massaging chair slowly kneads up and down an aching back.  After the kind lady transforms rough, sandpaper-like feet into two beautifully smooth, elegantly painted masterpieces, perfumed lotion is generously applied and worked into feet and calves.  The pinnacle of this luxurious process comes when two steaming towels are placed carefully on legs and feet!  Oh, what a DELIGHT!

Such delight should be found in a close, personal relationship with the Heavenly Father!  The wee, quiet hours of the morning are most precious.  Before the birds sing, before the rising of the sun, and before the rush of pattering feet is my favorite time.  God’s Word is so powerful:  cleansing me, instructing me.  It’s stories break my heart, bringing tears.  Other passages bring sunshine to my weary soul.  God gives wisdom and hope and adds strength for each new day.  This pales in comparison to what comes next.  To be ushered into His presence through prayer is almost more than I can bear.  The forgiveness, peace, and love He bestows cannot be found anywhere else.  There is no earthly pleasure that can compare.  A greater luxury cannot be found.  

Another promise is made to those who delight in Him: “…He shall give thee the desires of thine heart.”

FRET NOT – DELIGHT THYSELF ALSO IN THE LORD!

1. COMMIT THY WAY UNTO THE LORD!

Commit means to roll your way (your life, your path) unto the LORD.  Picture with me, if you will, your life held tightly in your arms, held close to your chest.  It gets heavy, too burdensome – so tired and weary from the struggle of lugging it around.  Can you see it?  Now imagine your arms loosening, shoulders relaxing.  As your arms begin to fall, right below your arms are the arms of the Heavenly Father; and you let your life, your path, your way roll right into the Lord’s arms.  What a relief it is!  You’ll be tempted to retrieve it, but don’t!  Leave it there.  

To those who commit and trust in Him another promise is made: “…He shall bring it to pass.”

He will make it happen!

FRET NOT – COMMIT THY WAY UNTO THE LORD!

1.  REST IN THE LORD!

After you’ve rolled your burden on the Lord, now comes REST.  The Father will give you rest.  His yoke is easy, and His burden is light!

FRET NOT – REST IN THE LORD!

1.  CEASE FROM ANGER AND FORSAKE WRATH!

Did you know that one minute of anger weakens the immune system for four to five hours?  God commands us to STOP anger!  ABANDON wrath!  Leave it behind.  If God commands it, He’ll make a way to accomplish it!  When anger does rear its ugly, little head, WAIT!  ACT!  DON’T REACT!!  Find another outlet for anger besides the mouth!   Take out all your pots and pans and a box of SOS pads and scrub the fire out of the; clean some window; go for a brisk walk. Learn to channel anger differently.  Cease from it!  Forsake it!

Did you know that one minute of laughter boosts the immune system for twenty-four hours?  LEARN TO LAUGH!  A merry heart doeth good like a medicine!  

FRET NOT – CEASE FROM ANGER!

For the remainder of 2020…..FRET NOT!  December 31, when the clock strikes midnight,   we usher in the year 2021, and  we don’t know what’s ahead… FRET NOT!  Trust in the Lord, delight in the Lord, commit thy way to the Lord, rest in Him, and cease from anger.  Have a merry Christmas and a most blessed new year.