Tuesday, August 20, 2013
Genesis 15:1-6 After this, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: "Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward."
SPILL IT OUT
This word of the Lord spoken to Abraham is meant for our ears and hearts as well. Too often we fail to come to God with our doubts and fears -- as though we are afraid that His response will be to reprimand us for our weakness of faith. But this word from God himself encourages us both to put our trust in the LORD and to exercise that faith by coming to him in times of anxiety, doubt and temptation.
After all, when the LORD in Psalm 50:15 invites, "Call upon Me in the day of trouble," He knows that our troubles will not only be from fightings without, but also from fears within. In fact, won't Satan seek to use every outward trouble as an opportunity to attack our faith in Christ. This is no time to hold back, but rather a time to follow Luther's urging in the Large Catechism and elsewhere:
"You must learn to call, not sitting by yourself or lying on your couch, hanging and shaking your head, gnawing and biting yourself with your thoughts, worrying and seeking how you may be rid of them; but up, you lazy fellow, and fall on your knees, and lifting your hands and eyes to heaven, pray a Psalm or the Lord's Prayer and bring your trouble and your tears before God, uttering your complaint before Him and calling on Him. He wants you to lay your trouble before Him and not leave it resting upon yourself as a burden and dragging it along with you, thus making of your misfortune two, yea, three, or a hundred.
"Whatever it may be cast it on the heap before Him as when you open your heart to a good friend. ... Just pour it all out freely, do not dribble and trickle, for He will not dribble and trickle either, but will overwhelm you with a flood."
