Proverbs 12:25

New International Version (NIV)

Anxiety weighs down the heart,
but a kind word cheers it up.

For Meditation

I remember that day very clearly. The telephone rang. I was in the kitchen. I knew I was expecting that call, yet I hesitated to run for the receiver in the living room. The sound of it grew louder in my ears and finally overpowered my restraint. I ran for it at last, and the expected news sounded from faraway Tennessee in the United States of America. “It’s a boy!” my wife said. Anxiety gave way to joy, as tears flowed with its warmth to my soul. “I am a grandfather at last!”

Moments of anxiety come in diverse ways and intensity. But the effect is always the same, no matter how it is processed or expressed. It “weighs the heart down”, as Solomon says in Proverbs 12:25. But, praise God that “a kind word cheers it up” (b). No matter the heaviness of our situation, there is a kind word from God to cheer our hearts in Christ Jesus.

1. What then should we do when anxiety sets in? When the enemy bears his teeth through the angry storm, and the waves grow stronger than we can navigate; when the world tightens its grip on our comforts, and the flesh grows weak under its strong desires; where do we turn for strength and support?
2. Isn’t it instructive to know that David turned inwardly to question his soul in one of his anxious moments – either during his flight from the insurrection of his son Absalom, or in one of his lonesome moments avoiding Saul’s dragnet? “Why, my soul”, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me (Ps. 42:5)?”
3. And why would David speak to himself that way? Did he not know his God and His eternal promise spoken to His servant Joshua, “I will never leave you nor forsake you (Joshua 1:5)?” Isn’t it sweet? Do you see why David, then comforted his soul with these words: “Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God (b)”?
4. Otherwise, where else can we turn to in our difficult moments? To whom can we reach out when circumstances overwhelm us? Is it not to our only, “Great God and Savior Jesus Christ (Titus 2:13)”; our High Priest who has suffered through it all and has come out unscathed, and now glorified (Heb. 4:15)?
5. Why then shouldn’t we take His invitation to “approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in our time of need (16)” – during those moments when we’re downcast and heavy laden (Matt. 11:28)? Will He not give us rest? Why shouldn’t we put our hope in Him and go on to praise Him who alone is our Savior and God (Ps. 42:5b)?

I pray this kind word from the Lord will lift your spirit up in Christ Jesus (Prov. 12:25b), and get you out of the “slimy pit, out of the mud and mire (Ps. 40:2)”, whatever it may be today.

So: May God “set your feet upon on a rock and [give you] a firm place to stand (b)”; may the Lord Jesus “put a new song in [your] mouth, a hymn of praise to our God (3)”; that the world may know that we serve a living God who is active in the life of His children.

It is well, for “weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning (Ps. 30:5).”

Shalom