With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs. Zeph 3:17 (NLT)
Redeeming Love – Part 3
Verse 17 of Zephaniah 3 is well-known mainly for the line that says “He is a mighty saviour.” I really love the way the NLT puts this verse and there’s one part that really grabbed me as I re-read it.
“With His love, He will calm all your fears.”
In this world, we look to many different things to calm our fears and anxieties. In psychology, these are called coping mechanisms and they help us deal with piecing the world together as we see it, with some kind of logic and sense. The truth is there’s an incredible amount of information available to us in any given moment so the very nature of life is overwhelming. It’s like trying to catch a tsunami in a tea cup.
Job, kids, mortgage, relationships, friends, romance, food (just trying to eat healthy is hard enough!), exercise, school, family, extended family, politics, servicing the car, balancing the budget, doctor’s appointment, dentist checkup, sports, cleaning the house, washing the car, mowing the lawns, picking up the dry cleaning, coffee with friends, visiting relatives, annual vacations, school fees, uniforms, health insurance, new socks… you get it!
Then there’s managing everything in between these things! The politics of particular family dynamics, or certain friendships. Who is dairy intolerant? Which one has a nut allergy? Oh and Sally hates broccoli… Work colleagues and teammates that aren’t actually…well you know, mates. Then there’s the government and the decisions they’re making. And what about those tensions in overseas countries? The children that are suffering in the third world. Not to forget the homeless kids just around the corner or the neighbours that get drunk and fight every other night.
OK, now try and fit some time with God in there too… Oh yeah… God!
Because of His presence (always there) and His nature (always loving) it doesn’t matter how chaotic and overwhelming things get… His love is always available and is the perfect prescription for calming fears and redeeming our hearts…
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