Nervous energy only lasts so long.

As I examine my heart through God’s word today, I can see that I’m beginning to be less energized to act and more content with the idea of burrowing under my covers.  But God’s word isn’t calling me to this.  As the Apostle Paul says in Romans, “Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up” (15:2).  My heart is going the other way though.  I think at first I’ve been relying on this nervous energy, but that is depleting.  I’m feeling more tired and less motivated.  Thoughts come more easily like, “don’t worry about it, just take care of yourself today.”

And I do have needs that need to be met, but they are rarely meet by what I think they would be.  Fortunately, wisdom comes from God’s word, which declares of itself that it is capable of giving to me what I need.

“For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through the endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Romans 15:4).

The Bible was given to us to give us clarity.  We don’t have clarity on our own.  I have no idea how to do live streaming.  Fortunately, I have people around me who have more knowledge than I do.  I don’t need to look to myself.  This is deeply true with God’s word.  I can look to God to speak to me what I need to hear.  I am not the source of my own knowledge. 

The Bible was given that we might have endurance.  I cannot muster enough inner strength to calm the residual fears of my heart (will I ever have fresh fruit again?), and make moves to help my neighbor (checking in on and praying for them).  But God through His word does.  For instance as I realize the fears of my heart, I keep remembering this phrase, “perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18).  And that is true because God first loved us (1 John 4:19).  “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (4:10).  This is deeply good news for my soul.  God does not love me based on my ability to love or overcome fear.  He loves me first.  And He doesn’t love me only in words but also in clear and glorious actions: the sending of His Son to be a sacrifice in order that I might be made Holy and able to have the living God in me.  “Whoever confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he is God” (4:15).  I cannot endure.  But God in me can.

The Bible was given that I might be encouraged.  I cannot self-motivate when I am fearful or tired.  My will is not strong enough, but God is.  And He uses His word to do it.  “May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus” (Romans 15:5).  God can encourage you to endure.  God can encourage you to love your neighbor.  God can do these things and He has chosen to do these things through His word.  Because His word brings hope.

The hope I have today is not that I can do all things.  My hope is that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Philippians 4:13).  My hope is not that I can overcome my preoccupation and love of self, but that God can fill me with such a great love that it can overflow into the lives of others.  “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (1 John 4:11).

Beloved, God’s got this…let’s keep our eyes on Him through His word.