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In Fear, I Will Trust. I Trust and Will not Fear.

Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You. In God (I will praise His word), In God I have put my trust; I will not fear. What can flesh do to me?  Psalms 56:3‭-‬4 

The Philistines had captured David after he fled from King Saul was surrounded by these enemies.  In fact, in 2 Sam, we are told that David had to pretend he was mad as a strategy to stay alive.

Thus, in this context, David was afraid, for his enemies were many (v2). And it was not just their sheer numbers but also their persistency to attack him all day long.

Now, we know that it is one thing to be going through a short trial but quite another when it is prolonged and increasingly intense.  However, under these intense pressures, what was David’s response to calm his fear? 

He said to God, I will trust in You. 

He didn’t say he feels like trusting God but that he will. It was a deliberate choice he made.  And on what basis? In what God has revealed regarding himself and his promises in His word

Spurgeon once said that “if we cannot do all we would, we ought to throw ourselves upon the promise of God“.

Brothers and sisters, in this period of global pandemic,  fears prevail everywhere, especially for those who are most vulnerable and lacked medical care. 

We have seen this playing out in countries like India and Bangladesh and Nepal recently. Where hundreds and thousands of people died every day. And many are struggling in the hospitals to take in each breath.  

But what can we do when we are afraid?  Like David, we can choose to trust in God.  

A story was told of a  little child playing in a  room by himself, amused, but every ten minutes he ran to the foot of the stairs and called out, “Mother, are you there?” and his mother  answered, “Yes, I am here,” and then back he went to his play and fun—again,  until later it crossed his mind that his mother might have gone. 

So he ran to the  stairs again and called, “Mother, are you there?” “Yes I am,” she said, and as soon as he heard her voice  again, back he went once more to his play.

So it is for us, in times of our trouble and fears, we go to God in prayer and we say, “Father, are You there?  Is it Your  providence that has brought me this difficulty?” And as soon as you hear the voice which says, “It is I, and I am still here“, you are no longer afraid!  

But then notice David did not linger at this level for short term calm and relief.  For he went on to say in v4,  

In God I have put my trust; I will not fear. What can flesh do to me?  

Now at this stage, David not only found a temporal calm but he has decided to lower his anchor of faith deeper, to prepare and protect himself for the next wave. And when he did that, he was able to say ” what can flesh or man do to me?”

I call that a kind of holy defiance against fear and this came about because he anchored his trust in God deeper.

Here is another story.   

One day people came to Martin Luther and  said, “Martin, it is  all over with the Reformation cause now, for the Emperor of Germany has sworn a solemn oath to help  the pope.” But what did Luther reply?

“I do not care a snap of my finger for both of them,” he said, “nor for all the devils in hell!  This is God’s work, and God’s work can stand against both emperors and popes!” 

Luther was a man  who trusted God intensely—and because of this he was not afraid. 

You know, it is a good thing that faith can bear us through a crisis —but it is even better  if  we have a faith that is anchored well to live above future fears and troubles! 

So bros and sis, let us not be content with the faith that provides only temporal relief in times of trouble but let us seek to anchor our faith deeper in God.   A faith that firmly knows and believes that he does all things good for those who are called according to his purpose.  

And to believe that we have a great High Priest in heaven, who never ceases to intercede on our behalf, and whose intercession is always heard and answered by His Father.  

So that even when circumstances seemed to turn against us, we may say with David, what can man do to me? Or in our case today, “What can Covid-19 virus do to me?”

Yes, make no mistake, we ought to do our part to be socially responsible and take necessary precaution as advised and out of love for those around us. However, we should also not allow fear to dwarf our faith. We need to constantly keep our focus on Christ instead of the waves so that we do not sink under them. And in the event that God willed that we become infected (not due to our presumption or carelessness), may we still be able to say, “what can covid do to me? For nothing shall separate me from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

May God help us to trust Him when we are fearful so that we can trust and no longer fear.

Paul Phua 

How God Handles Anger (II)

Look at the Cross. When Jesus died on the Cross for undeserving sinners like us, what do you see? We see the simultaneous expression of God’s love and God’s anger!

At the Cross, God showed His anger at sin. He poured out His anger on Jesus, our Substitute. At the Cross, God showed His love for sinners. He poured out His love on us, the sinners. 

The Cross shows us how God handles anger. The Cross is our model for ‘anger management’.

[A] At the Cross, we see that God’s anger is redeeming.

Our relationship with God was broken by our sin and rebellion. Was God angry? Yes! What did He do in His anger? He promised to send the seed of the Woman to crush the head of the serpent (Genesis 3:15). This promise was finally fulfilled when Jesus died on the Cross for sinners. We see therefore that in His anger, He did not destroy what is already broken. Instead, He acted to repair what needs to be repaired. God’s anger actually makes things better. His anger is a redeeming anger.

When our spouse lets us down . . . when our children rebel against our authority . . . when our friends betray us . . . we are angry. But is the anger redeeming?  Does that anger operate to separate us or bring us together? Does it repair or damage the relationship further?

[B] At the Cross, we see God’s anger is communicative.

From the time we rebelled against God till the Cross at Calvary, God has been speaking to us (His people) about our sins. He doesn’t just drop hints, explode in anger arbitrarily, put up smokescreens, say “It’s OK” when it isn’t . . .  No, He speaks honestly and truthfully, He tells us where the problem lies. Even after the Cross, God continues to speak to us, telling us of our desperate need and His loving provision. He communicates honestly, in His anger. 

Do we talk? And when we talk, are we honest? I am not calling you to ‘let him/her have it’. I am exhorting you to speak in honesty what is really going on inside you, what drives your anger and irritation. God speaks. Do you?

[C] At the Cross, we see God’s anger is patient.

Remember that the initial wrong, the betrayal, took place in Genesis 3. Instead of taking a rash “I-will-settle-it-now” attitude, He took His time to work through the problem. How long? From Genesis 3 to Matthew 27, it is roughly 4000 years! S-L-O-W to anger!! Yet throughout this period of time, He wasn’t adopting an “accept-anything-and-affirm-everything” stance. Deliberate words were spoken, purposeful actions were done, word for word, step by step, leading up to Calvary.

Is there purpose and timeliness in our anger? Or is it (normally) rash, just to let off steam and feel better? Do we pick our words as well as time and place to tell the other person our anger? Is our anger patient?

[D] At the Cross, we see God’s anger is sacrificial.

The Cross costs God something. It costs the sacrifice of His only Son. No greater sacrifice could He give than that. In His anger, He acted for our good!

When we are angry, is it about self-interest or his/her-welfare? Is our anger sacrificial? Are we willing to do something that will cost us and yet result in the good of the person who provoked us?

God’s anger is redeeming, communicative, patient and sacrificial. We are not called to be less angry, but more God-like in our anger. But how can I be like God in His anger? There is no magic formula. We become God-like when we invest time to walk with God. The closer we walk with God, the closer our anger will look like His. Are you willing?

WEI En Yi

How God Handles Anger

Anger is “I’m against that!” You encounter ‘that’, you assess ‘that’ as wrong, you deem ‘that’ as important to you and hence you move to oppose ‘that’. This is anger in action.

While there is righteous anger, most of the anger expression we see daily belongs to the sinful anger category – irritability, argumentative, resentment, bitterness, nursing grudges, physical violence, vindictive words . . . 

James was talking about sinful anger when he called us to be slow to wrath “for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.” (James 1:20). Sinful human anger doesn’t work. Consider . . . 

(a) You shouted at your children in anger because you’ve asked them twice to pack up and nothing moved! Seeing your seething anger, they started . . . it works, right? No, because the next time, you may have to shout even louder and maybe bang the table before they will move! Our sinful human anger does not work (not effective and not for long).

(b) So irritated by the behaviour of your younger sibling, you started to use vindictive words and before long, physical violence starts to appear . . . Would your sinful expression of anger change your spouse? Unlikely! More likely, it will breed resentment and bitterness in him/her . . . Anger breeds anger . . . It is contagious!

The wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Remember this – regularly, constantly, daily! It does not work. It is not effective. In fact, it is counterproductive. The situation only gets worse, both of you are worse off and God is dishonoured.

So do you mean to tell me that I must never be angry?  No, the call is not “don’t you ever be angry” but “be God-like in your anger”! The Bible does portray God being angry, angry with our sins. How does He express His anger? How does He ‘handle’ anger?

Remember That God Is Slow To Anger.

This is one of His glories, isn’t it? The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy. (Psalm 103:8). When God encounters sin, He is against it! Definitely!! But He is not quick, not eager, not can’t-wait to give us the wrath that we sinners deserve. 

We are called to imitate Him: He who is slow to wrath has great understanding, but he who is impulsive exalts folly. (Proverbs 14:29). To be slow to anger does not mean that we are indifferent to the wrongs being done, that we condone or compromise with the sinful behaviour. We are against it. However, we want be S-L-O-W in our expression of anger, like God.

This is especially important for us because unlike God, we are not sinless. We need to be slow to anger because we are so often unaware of what gods we are serving in our hearts as we get angry. Maybe we are angry, not just because of the sinful conduct of that person, but because our security, our peace, our pleasure, our _______ is being threatened. We therefore need to go S-L-O-W, to examine our anger, to ask, “What does this anger say about my heart?”

David says in Psalm 4:4, “Be angry, and do not sin. Meditate within your heart on your bed and be still.” David was wrestling with the wrong and unfair treatment meted out to him by his enemies. Wrong and unfair treatment is wrong, and David is against that! But instead of acting quickly in anger, speaking rashly, lashing out, he is calling himself to go S-L-O-W and seek to understand his anger. Maybe I am overreacting . . . Maybe I have misread the situation . . . How would I know? Ask the Lord to search my heart. Before the sun goes down, I must meet my Lord so that I will know what to say and how to approach it. In simple words, he is calling himself, as well as calling all of us, to be still before the Lord, to let Him search our hearts and to hear what He has to say!

There are other aspects of God’s anger management that we will look at in the coming weeks. But till then, here’s one aspect to learn and imitate: 

Be S-L-O-W to anger. So God help me!

WEI En Yi