I have many agitations and misgivings. But when heart and flesh faint and fail, my Lord has three whispers for me that banish fear and alarm.
"Fear not, for I have redeemed you!" Isaiah 43:1
My PAST brings me trouble the sins I have committed,
the duties I have neglected,
the guilt I am chargeable with,
the penalty I merit these make the retrospect of my days and years sad in the extreme.
I have wrecked my own life.
I have injured others.
I have sinned against God.
Sometimes I am overwhelmed by self-contempt.
But there is redemption there is forgiveness. God concerns Himself with the locust-eaten yesterday. He forgives it through the might of Christ's Cross. He may transmute my very sins and errors and falls into means of grace as nature can convert the battlefield that was strewn with the dead, into the greenest of pastures. He redeems me from my past!
"Fear not, for I am with you!" Isaiah 41:10
My PRESENT stirs in me great disquietude.
Apart from my Savior, I am still as weak as water before temptation,
an easy prey to the enemy,
the willing servant of sin.
But then God remains with me, to preserve my soul from death and
my feet from falling and
my eyes from tears.
By His providence, His Gospel, His Spirit, He sanctifies and makes me holy.
I know not which to marvel at more: His suffering for me on the cruel Tree or His long-suffering with me always.
"Fear not, I will help you!" Isaiah 41:13
The FUTURE has its distresses.
Peering ahead, what do I see?
Many perplexities,
many trials and afflictions,
much weariness and struggle.
But my Lord will go before me.
As feeble as I am in myself, I shall be more than a conqueror over all the contingencies of the future, when the Lord helps and strengthens me.
To His thrice-repeated "Fear not!"
I reply, "I will not fear, for You have redeemed me,
You are with me, and
You will help me!"
[Alexander Smellie]
2 Timothy 1:7 .... For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. ❤
