Anguish Anxiety and Assurance Ps.5:3 CLICK TITLE FOR AUDIO
Today we’re going to discuss three things that can deeply affect your walk with God: anguish, anxiety and assurance. Two of these negatively affect your relationship to the Lord and one of these positively affects your relationship to Him. Can you tell which ones are which? Of course. Anguish and anxiety will magnify your problems and get you to take your eyes off the Lord. Assurance, on the other hand, will magnify the Lord and help you take your eyes off of your problems. Adrian Rogers said it this way “Sorrow looks back; worry looks around; and faith looks up,” [Ps 5:3]. Let’s look at these three in more detail.
Anguish – Prov 14:13; Prov 15:13 – grief, sorrow, regret and bitterness all keep your mind on the past. They keep you looking back. It is perfectly normal to be ashamed of sin in your past [Rom 6:21]. But once you are saved and your sins are washed in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, you need to quit looking back. You are dredging up something that God has chosen to not remember. Everything in your past that causes you sorrow was laid on Jesus [Is 53:4-5]. Now it’s time for you to trust his healing. It’s time to let him wipe away your tears [Rev 21:4].
Anxiety – Matt 14:29-30; Prov 29:25 – fear of circumstances will cause you to magnify the problems of which you are afraid. And fear of men will cause you to magnify the people of whom you are afraid. Peter saw the wind and the waves and magnified them above the Lord. So, he started to sink. You can’t improve your responses to your circumstances or your growth in your relationships by fear. You must trust the Lord with your circumstances and your relationships. Is 35:4 says to be strong and fear not. David said that when he was afraid he trusted in the Lord [Ps 56:3, 11]. You must remember that God hath not given us the spirit of fear [2 Tim 1:7].
Assurance – Heb 13:5-6; Prov 16:20 – when your faith is in the Lord your faith is sure. You never have to worry. The Lord is a strong tower; he is a fortress. Just keep looking up. You see the Lord in the scripture. You speak to the Lord through prayer. And he strengthens your faith. In alarming circumstances, he just gets bigger. In times when you are inclined to fear men, through faith, he calms your fears. There is not a problem he can’t handle and there is no person that he can’t deal with on your behalf. Keep looking up. Magnify the Lord.
Conclusion: You see how faith and assurance in the Lord get you to look up and away from your problems and away from your fears. Quit looking back and quit looking around. Look up. The Lord is right there to help you.