There is so much going on. In the midst of movement, there is heaviness. Is there anyone who agrees?
The best medicine?
Who feels a ‘heaviness of spirit?’ Do you? Even though you have a lot to be thankful for, you still have a heaviness that seems to be carried around. God offers remedy:
a ‘garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness’.(Is. 61:3).
We are ‘heavy in heart’, and we don’t even know why.Even in our own country, one of the most loved comedian-actors of this day, ended his life. How can that be? Could it just be this day that we live in? He probably had the best doctors you could find, but they didn’t have the ‘remedy’ to keep him whole.
I’ve been through cancer. I know people who listened ONLY to their doctors, and they are no longer with us. I know people who didn’t listen to anything the doctor said, and only did the alternative and they are battling the disease again; but I know those who are sick and listen to the doctors, and some perhaps go an alternate route,and that might help for a time, but still there will come an end. But there are some who also have a Great Physician as well, and they listen to Him completely, and, His remedy promises to heal the ‘whole’ of all that we are.
When I read the Psalms of David in the Bible, I see a man who would have easily been labeled ‘unstable’ on many an occasion.“Save me, O God; for the waters are come up to my neck – they threaten my life. I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters, where the floods overwhelm me.” Psalm 69:1-2.Amplified.
I think the important part for us all to realize, is…
we all are ‘unstable’ because we are trying to live complete lives without the ‘Completer of Life!’.
But David, continues in his Psalm and gives us a glimpse of “I am weary with my crying; my throat is parched; my eyes fail with (hopefully) waiting for my God.”(Psalm 69:3).
To be ‘whole’, is more than just the mind,( or our process of thinking, our will-power) and it’s more than just the body,(our physical mechanics), it involves our spirit as well. Some of us need the medication; there is a place for that at times, but that is not the ‘whole of the healing’, it is quite evident. There is a spirit in us all, and because we have packed away hurts, and dwell on doubts, and become overwhelmed and paralyzed by fear – it doesn’t matter what the doctor prescribes, his remedies are not the ‘cure all’!
But there is a Healer. But He doesn’t promise a ‘once and for all’ kind of healing. No. He says, “Follow Me.” His healing is more ‘liquid’, it flows from moment to moment; He is the breath which breathes in and out and brings Life, continuous and never ending. You see, He, the Healer, The Great Physician,He uses words – but they are more than words – they are power, they are supernatural, that are living and active and transforming. He tells us to ‘think on these things, His word, that is.
‘Take your vitamins, take your medicine if prescribed, but chew on this as you walk on; The Healer speaks:“The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me; because the LORD has anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent me to heal the broken hearted, TO proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound;..”(Is. 61:1). And there are more words, He also says:
“To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn, To console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness…”(Is. 61:3).
And we can watch David in his distress, cry out to God, “Rescue me out of the mire, and let me not sink; let me be delivered from those who hate me and from out of the deep waters. Let not the flood waters overflow and overwhelm me, neither let the deep swallow me up…” (Ps. 69:14). But we can witness ‘a change of garments’ even in his example. He puts on a ‘garment of praise’ and hope in God:
“But as for me, my prayer is to You, O Lord. At an acceptable and opportune time, O God, in the multitude of Your mercy and the abundance of Your loving-kindness hear me; and in the truth and faithfulness of Your salvation answer me.” (Psalm 69:13).”…I am poor and sorrowful, and in pain. Let Your salvation, O God, set me up on high. I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify Him with thanksgiving.”
Perhaps all of this ‘trouble’ has brought about an ‘acceptable’ time! And acceptable time to be ‘whole’ in seeking the Lord! God sees the multitude, and He knows all that’s going on inside. “And He opened up His mouth, and taught them, saying, “Blessed – happy, to be envied and spiritually prosperous [that is with life-joy and satisfaction with God’s favor and salvation, regardless of their outward condition]-are the poor in spirit, (the humble, rating themselves insignificant), for theirs is the kingdom of heaven! (Matthew 5:3).
God tells us that ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit!’
Could it be, that the ‘acceptable time’ for the Lord is now, but not just a ‘once and for all’ pill or ‘fix-it drug’. No, perhaps the acceptable time for healing is now, flowing like a river kind of healing, where in the process we see a transformation occur where our ‘mourning is comforted’ with an ‘oil of joy’, where we see the ashes changed to ‘beauty’, and we take off those old clothes of despair and fear and heaviness and we courageously accept,
in this acceptable time, to put on a ‘garment of praise’! “For the Lord hears the poor and needy, and despises not His prisoners [His miserable and wounded ones]. Let Heaven and earth praise Him…!” (Psalm 69: 33,34).
This doesn’t mean we have to go skipping singing a ‘happy song’ all the day, no, this simply means that being ‘poor in spirit’, we see our need for God, and we praise Him because He is so big, and we are not, and He loves us, even in our disfunction, our anxieties, and fright, and He begins a transforming work as we leave our ‘heavy garments’ at His feet, over and over again, and in turn choose to put on garments of praise, continuously. Not just a ‘putting on’, but a ‘keep putting on’, …kind of like a river, it just flows! “Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him all creatures here below. Praise Him above, ye heavenly host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen”Doxology