The Lord is Near

When the Lord is near

There’s no need to fear.

He promised to wipe every tear

That should bring us good cheer.

When we trust in Him

All the doubts grow dim.

We will experience His caring

And it’s more than just a feeling.

He gives us His peace

Which goes beyond our understanding

But it’s something that we know

When we have been praying.

So let’s keep trusting

In the One who knows everything.

He has power over all things

We are safe under His wings.

Traveling light & trusting

This Sunday’s preaching was very encouraging, enlightening and challenging. Pastor Jess talked about traveling light in this world and trusting our Lord.

Traveling light presents our dependence on God. Hebrews 12:1 tells us to throw away everything that hinders and sin that easily encumbers us to live lives that please God. A contrast between Jacob and David was made. With Jacob, Genesis 47:9 tells us that he had lived a sad, unpleasant and short life, despite living for 130 years. He was an example of a person who was overloaded with baggage to carry all throughout his life. He faced lots of problems and struggles, including his unhealed relationship with his sibling and deception.

In contrast David in Psalm 23 exemplified a person traveling light with God. He also had lots of troubles but he was able to leave them behind and go to God. He considered the Lord as his Shepherd, which meant that he considered himself as a sheep, the weakest of all animals. Sheep never worry about food, shelter and other provisions. They are dependent on their shepherd to provide and protect. By acknowledging the Lord as his shepherd, David was able to experience provision of needs spiritually and physically, restoration from his sins/baggage of sin and freedom from guilt and worries.

Thus like David we can start the year by declaring that the Lord is our Shepherd. I should not worry because the Lord is my Shepherd. In the midst of worries about the future and past failures, we can trust God to restore us to Him if we allow Him to. We can look to God as our guide as He never makes mistakes in leading us. We do not know what the future holds but we should not worry; we should live in the present.

We need to press on to reach the goal as encouraged by Paul in Philippians 3:13-14. Our goal is to invest in heaven, whatever we do on earth. To know Jesus more, to love Him more, to serve Him more. If we let our baggages weigh us down we will never be able to do what God asks or wants us to do.

Psalm 55:22 reminds us that we can cast our burdens on the Lord, which means to completely lay it at His feet. It takes trust to do this.

Let us travel light with the Lord and trust Him at all times.