#worry

Psalm 62 A ‘Nevertheless’ Faith in Christ

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Hello Family!

September 29 is St. Michael and All Angels Day. This is the time in the Christian Church year where the Christian Church around the world focuses on spiritual warfare. This time of the Church Year is called “The Church Militant.”

Spiritual warfare doesn’t occur only during the month of October. It happens every day and the devil is at work every hour. Though he’s defeated and Christ Jesus decisively won the War on Calvary and with the empty Easter tomb, daily battles still occur. Spiritual warfare will continue until the Day when Jesus returns. So, where do you place your hope and trust? Is God first? If not, then what or who is first?

Readings for Proper 22C: Habakkuk 1:1-4, 2:1-4; Psalm 62; 2Timothy 1:1-14; Luke 17:1-10

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I love you guys! Dad

Psalm 33:18-20 Do You Keep An Eye On God?

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Hi Family!

Do you ever feel like you’re swamped and swimming up stream? Does it ever seem like God may never keep His word? The unbelieving world has a lot of answers for the Christian. They ridicule Christians for putting their hopes, dreams, and desires in something so futile as “this Jesus.” The newest label for the Christian here in the US is “Christian Nationalist,” and it’s not a term used for flattery. Nevertheless, the Christian presses forward.

This is nothing new. God’s people have always been challenged in various ways. And the Christian has the added burden as we, too, wrestle with anxiety. Psalm 33 has the answer!

Readings for Proper 14-C: Genesis 15:1-6; Psalm 33:12-22; Hebrews 11:1-16; Luke 12:22-40

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I love you guys! Dad

Psalm 100:3 Are You Storing Up?

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Good day Family! It was GREAT having you all with us last week for the wedding!

You’re feeling it at the gas pumps. Right? Feeling it at the grocery store. Right? As of Thursday, July 28th, our country is officially in a recession. It looks like we could be heading for stagflation as well. You’re way to young to know about this because the last time stagflation happened, it was under the Carter administration in the late 70s.

Times like these are challenging for every person, Christian and non-Christian alike. However, the Christian handles things differently than the rest of world does. Yes. We’re to store up, but what are we to store up on?

Readings for Proper 13-C: Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14, 2:18-26; Psalm 100; Colossians 3:1-11; Luke 12:13-21

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I love yous guys! Dad

Silence Is Golden! (Psalm 37:7-8)

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Sunset over water

Silence! Patience! I know some of you in the family are more patient than others. And, as you will attest, I’m not always the most patient in the family–though I have made great strides over the last couple of months. But silence in this family? Ha! That’s a good one! The Redekers are great talkers and we love to be with people. So, silence is a foreign concept in our household.

Finishing up with Psalm 37:7-8 and dealing with fretting, God calls His people to be silent. That means ‘to keep quiet.’ Everything that causes us to be anxious, to worry and to be angry–we are to hand it over to God. Once we do that then we are to be silent. God puts His finger over our lips and says, “Shhhhhh. Don’t worry about it anymore. I will take care of everything. Be patient. Be still. And trust Me.”

Lips

Patience can be hard for anyone to practice, regardless if the person is 100 years old or 2 years old. But as the saying goes patience is a virtue. When we hand our problems, troubles, frets, anger and worries over to God to handle, then what should we do as we patiently and silently wait? Pray! Pray through the problem or the concern. It doesn’t have to be a fancy prayer. And it doesn’t have to be a long prayer. When we get impatient, we can simply pray, “Lord, I know You’re in control.”

Verse 8 reminds us about anger. This might be anger toward God, and it might be anger toward another person. We are to refrain from anger. Anger, like fretting and needless worrying, doesn’t do us any good at all. In fact, it eats away at our insides and it makes us feel like we simply want to explode. But what good does that do us? No good at all! And it doesn’t make the situation any better. Does it? It only makes the person who is angry more miserable.

anger: Anger, rage, shout.

What does God want us to do? Refrain from it!! That means abandon anger, desert it, leave it in the lurch by releasing it. Don’t hang on to it, but again, let God deal with it. Trust God and pray for His guidance. When we hand everything over to God and let go of things, then a sense of peace comes upon us. We know that even though we are not in control, God is in control. We are then freed up to lead a life with God’s peace and security.

So, what did we learn from Psalm 37:3-10?

TRUST God. He replaces our insecurities with His faithfulness and security. Everything begins with trust: We should revere, love and trust in God above all things.

DELIGHT in the Lord. Wrap yourself up in Jesus. He softens the bumpy road and smooths out the rough spots in life so that it’s not so bumpy.

COMMIT to the Lord. Let Jesus roll your problems over to God. After all, the stone was rolled over the tomb where Jesus lay. But then 3 days later on Easter, He rolled the stone away.

BE STILL. Silence is golden before the Lord. Jesus was silent and patient with us as He hung on the cross on Good Friday.

REFRAIN. Abandon all our problems and worries over to Jesus. Release them and let Him handle them for us.

Prayer: Dear Lord; sometimes life can get real tough and hard to handle. Sometimes I get angry and it brews and festers inside of me. Forgive me for trying to handle everything on my own. You care for me and You want the best for me, including living a life free from anger worry, anxiousness and fretting. Help me to trust You more and hand everything over to Jesus to take of things for me. In Jesus Name I pray. Amen.

I love you guys! Dad

Roll With the Changes (Psalm 37:5-6)

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Vintage Photo of People Pushing Old Car

Fretting, anxiousness, and unnecessary worrying is very easy to do. We might have some good reasons for this. Nevertheless, God doesn’t want His people to fret. And He gives the antidote to fretting. That’s why I’m continuing on with Psalm 37 for a couple of days because there’s SO MUCH great stuff in here to help us, as God’s people, to commit everything over to God and let Him handle our problems so that  we can continue to live life the way He wants His people to live it.

Have you ever rolled a heavy object? For instance, have you ever had to push a car that died? I know I have. When I was young, my friends and I didn’t have money for new cars. We had beaters (and they were a lot of fun)! But they also died out once in a while. That would mean we would have to get out and push them. Now, back then cars were really cars–they were made out of heavy metal and steel. It was really hard and difficult to begin to push the car and get it moving. But once there was momentum, the car would move much more easily. The hard part was the initial pushing to get it moving.

Psalm 37:5-6 builds on what we read the last two days about how to deal with fretting and worrying. God wants us to ‘commit’ our way/life and all our problems over to Him, and then ‘trust’ Him. There’s that word ‘trust’ again (see October 17 for ‘trust’). The word ‘commit’ means ‘to roll or turn,’ like a huge heavy boulder to close up a well or a cave. Fretting and worrying can become heavy burdens. And the more we try handling things on our own, the heavier that stone can become. Roll it over to God to handle. Hand it over to Jesus because we can’t roll that stone on our own. Turn that stone over to Him and trust Him, because He’s the One who has already sealed our cave and deep well of sin.

What are some problems or worries you might be facing today? Are you trying to handle them yourself? Do you think you can do a better job than Jesus can at solving your problems or worries? What might be holding you back from committing them/turning and rolling them over to Jesus?

Prayer: Heavenly Father; it would be so wonderful if everything in life were easy and care-free. But it’s not. And if life were that way, then we might find ourselves not needing You and walking away from you. Whatever problems and worries we may have today, we turn them over to you. We trust you Lord. Help us in our lack of trust. We roll everything over to you in Jesus name. Amen.

I love you! Dad