================================================== ==
SUBSCRIBE
================================================== ==
MORNING DEVOTION FOR ADULTS 2023
“I’M WITH YOU”
Narrated by: Roberto Navarro
From: Montreal, Canada
A courtesy of DR’Ministries and Canaan Seventh-Day Adventist Church
APRIL 09
“I’LL BE WITH YOU”
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and if by the rivers, they will not drown you. When you go through the fire, you will not be burned nor will the flame burn in you (Isaiah 43:2).
A couple of years ago Ryan Reynolds, a famous Hollywood actor, publicly admitted that he was fighting a fierce battle against anxiety. In the context of Mental Health Awareness Month, he posted this message on his Instagram account: “To all of you who, like me, overschedule, overthink, overwork, overworry and do everything in excess, please know that you are not alone.” This excess of everything is what leads us to fill ourselves with anxiety, “a feeling of apprehension and worry that greatly alters” our normality. * Along with depression, anxiety is one of the most common mental health problems of our time.
Experts say that almost 5 percent of people suffer from generalized anxiety. Anxiety causes us fatigue, irritability, palpitations and dizziness. It is not something we should take lightly. The psalmist cried out: “My soul is undone with anxiety!” (Psalm 119:28). How many of us feel the same right now? The verb “undo” contains the idea that something is spilled, it is as if the psalmist said: “A torrent of anxiety is spilling / is falling abruptly within me.” Anxiety is an anguish in the heart, a pain that wears our lives down, an emptiness that fills our soul with madness.
Those of us anxious need to remember what Ryan said: “Know that you are not alone.” And who is by our side during those moments when everything seems hectic and uncontrollable? The prophet Isaiah answers us: “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and if through the rivers, they will not overwhelm you. When you pass through the fire, you will not be burned, nor will the flame burn in you” (Isaiah 43:2), In the midst of our battle against worries we must not forget, God is with us and he accompanies us in our most anxious moments. The Creator stands by our side, and what does he do it for? To give us comfort and joy in the midst of our worries (see Psalm 94:19, DHH). I know that there are many things that worry us, problems that have made anxiety our companion; however, our heavenly Father has come into our anxious lives to give us “comfort and joy.” We are not alone.
* Julián Melgosa, Positive Mind (Madrid: Editorial Safeliz, 2013), p. 96.
