“I sought the LORD, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame.” Psalm 34:4-5
Dear Lilies,
After reading these two verses this morning, I stopped, overwhelmed by the Words as I reluctantly let them soak in, and scribbled down what ran through my head into my journal:
My fears? That often seem petty, yet wear on my soul with no relent?
Yes, and then… and then, what next?
You will make me radiant, my face never covered with shame?
FEAR – SHAME – RADIANT – FACE
Are we not so awfully familiar with all these words?
We FEAR, which so often leads to sin (which we have probably done before, time and time again), and we are filled with something perhaps even more bone aching – SHAME. We want to hide our FACE, bury it beneath our shame. All the while, we long to be able to lift our head and be radiant – beams of light, living life with only scars of fear and shame, not active wounds, oozing and painful.
AND YET,
Jesus already knows this. He already prepared a way out of this. He already orchestrated a re-arrangement of our cacophony into something beautiful, something lovely.
His re-arrangement starts with one new word to the word mix.
SEEK
“I SOUGHT the LORD, and he answered me…”
We must first SEEK him, then, the verse continues…
He DELIVERED me from all my FEARS.
And another word,
LOOK
“Those who LOOK to Him are RADIANT; their faces are never covered with SHAME.”
This is his symphony, for you & me:
(insert your name below where I inserted mine)
Sarah, SEEK Me, and I will DELIVER you from all your FEARS. When you LOOK to Me, you will be RADIANT; your FACE will never be covered with SHAME.
Let’s try it out today, Lilies.
Side note: I’m literally going to start right now by seeking my Father amid my trivial fear of not being able to run today thanks to a messed up hip (let’s be real, the real root of this fear is that by not running for ONE day, or maybe even morning, I will go insane and get fat… like is THIS STILL AN ISSUE I KNOW THESE THOUGHTS ARE NOT TRUTHS!!!! Sarah, really?! Take a chill pill.) Because He and He alone can still my (currently Tasmanian devil-like) soul, and deliver me from my fear. I will LOOK to him, and I will be radiant, not covered with shame from my oh so nagging fear.
In His Love and His Truth, with a seeking and looking heart,
Sarah