What do you do when life seems overwhelming? When life is turned upside down, and plans you made are wiped away? Where do you turn when the haze of anxiety and the gloom of depression surround you and you feel alone and overwhelmed, as though you are drowning in the middle of an ocean with no help near? Some say “Think positively;” but if you’re in the middle of this, you know that positive thoughts are hard to come by, and it’s easy to get side-tracked with the positive thoughts and plans you recently made that now lie dashed in pieces at your feet. Some say “Plan for the worst;” but if you overthink things (like I do), there’s simply no way to prepare for all the possible situations my mind can come up with. Sometimes the people you rely on are busy or have their own struggles to deal with. After all, they’re human too. That leaves you on your own, drowning, desperate, alone…. Or are you?
The past couple weeks I have been dealing with anxiety which invites depression along for the ride; so this topic is something I have been thinking about for a while. On Saturday I was reading the assigned passages for my Bible reading schedule, and one of them was Psalm 23. When I came to verse 4, the words caught me attention and spoke to my heart. “…I will fear no evil: for thou art with me….” No fear – because God is with me. That sounds wonderful, but what exactly does it mean by ‘evil’? According to Noah Webster, evil is anything which produces pain distress, loss or calamity, or which impairs the happiness . . . of natural beings. Well, I can apply that to life. Health concerns, death of a loved one, broken relationships, loss of a job, in general the storms of life we face all can be categorized as the ‘evil’ which the writer of Psalm 23, David, says he will not fear. So, what does it mean to fear this evil? Once again, I turned to the dictionary and found this definition. To fear is “to feel a painful apprehension of some impending evil, to be afraid of; to consider or expect with emotions of alarm or solicitude (which is a fancy word for ‘carefulness, concern, anxiety, uneasiness of mind occasioned by the fear of evil’).” That’s a lot to process. But allow me to reword Psalm 23:4 to try to help clarify. David is saying, “I will not be anxious, full of care, or disturbed in my soul because of things that can cause loss, pain, or take pleasure from life, because I know that my Shepherd is with me.”
When I read the definition for ‘solicitude,’ and the first word of definition was ‘carefulness’ I immediately thought of Philippians 4:6-7 which say, “ Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understand, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” This does not mean that life will suddenly be perfect, that there will be no pain, no suffering, no needs. No, it is simply saying that in all situations of life, there is no reason to be anxious or depressed. Why? Because as troubles arise, we can take our burdens, our needs, our concerns to the Lord. But there’s also thanksgiving going on because of who our God is. Our God is faithful. Our God is loving. Our God never sleeps, and so even in the night when there’s no one else awake, we can still cry to Him and it doesn’t disturb Him. He never changes, though our plans and other things we may be looking forward to so easily can be ruined. And so, with thanksgiving, we bring our burdens to our Father and cast them on Him. As we give Him our burdens, He gives us His peace to still our troubled mind, to calm our turbulent thoughts. His peace guards our hearts.
But the process doesn’t stop there. The next verse in Philippians 4 says, “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” Those who say, ‘think positively’ do have a point, but here we have a bit more guidance. One good thing to fill our minds with that passes all the guidelines is Scripture. I have found the book of Psalms to be one of the best places to turn when I feel trapped with overwhelming emotions. In Psalms, we find examples of pouring out our hearts to our loving Father; we find truth about who God is; and we find promises that anchor our souls and that restore our bruised hearts. Another good thing to think on is music that tells who God is. Music is a powerful tool that can present things that are true, lovely, and pure in a way that is easier to remember than a page of text. Songs that remind us of who God is help us to praise Him and to keep our focus on Him rather than being distracted by the wind and the waves around us. But regardless of what method we use, the fact remains that this is an important part of finding peace in the middle of the valley in which we walk.
Pictures, whether mental or on some sort of physical canvas, have always helped me to remember truth. As I was thinking through these passages, I remembered the account of the children of Israel passing through the Red Sea. The Pharaoh and the army of Egypt were in hot pursuit, planning to bring God’s people back into captivity. Then God sent a wind and divided the sea to allow the Israelites to walk through on dry land. They could be anxious, thinking about the fact that they were being chased. They could be depressed, realizing that there was no side route, they were hemmed in by walls of water. They could be disturbed in their soul because they were going forward into a new land that they had never seen and there was a whole new unknown out there. Or they could rejoice in the fact that God had delivered them in an amazing way, and rest in the fact that God would care for them. The same holds true for us. We can look at the storm of evil that seems ready to overtake us and be anxious. We can look at the crushed dreams and plans that lay beside the way where we are walking, the only way that we can take, and allow depression to steal our joy. We can look ahead at the unknown future, so different that we had envisioned before our life storm came along, and fret and worry. Or we can choose to look to our loving, faithful heavenly Father and rest in His care and provision, knowing that He provides food for the sparrows and that He cares much more for us.
Friend, no matter what you’re facing let the truth of who God is still the turbulence in your soul. Stop fighting on your own. Relax in the Father’s arms and let His peace guard your heart and mind as you continually cast your burdens on Him and let things that are true, honest, just, pure, and lovely fill your thoughts. Praise Him in the storm as well as in the sunshine. As you do this moment by moment, hour by hour, day by day, your will find yourself able to say with the psalmist, “I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.”
Hope in truth 