“He Can Kill Your Butterflies!”

Scripture: “When anxiety was great within me, Your consolation brought joy to my soul.” –Psalms 94:19, NIV

Within this lifetime, you will have to get in front of a crowd of people and do something. Whether you are up there to welcome someone to your church, read scripture at your church, preach a sermon at your church or elsewhere, give a motivational talk about a given subject, and the list goes on and on. At the end of the day, when you are about to approach the pulpit or podium wherever you will be, you will have “butterflies in your stomach” as a sign of nervousness. What does one do in order to reduce these butterflies? According to eHow.com, here are some of their suggestions: 1) Remember to breathe, 2) Look your best, 3) Give up the belief that you have to be perfect, and 4) Focus on friendly faces. I have another remedy not mentioned in eHow.com or any other website, depend on God and allow Him to flow! Today’s text provides further clarity why this statement can be made.

Psalms serves as our focal book for today’s message. Scholars record that Psalms was written to deal with such subjects as our Heavenly Father and His creation, war, wisdom, worship, sin, evil, judgment, justice, and the coming of the Messiah. Fifty of the 150 psalms written within this book, like today’s psalm, has no recorded author. These psalms were written by a host of men including King David, Solomon, Moses, and the priests/Levites who provided music for sanctuary worship during David’s reign as king of Israel. Psalms 94 deals with two themes: the danger and foolishness of persecutors (verses 1 – 11) and comfort and peace to the persecuted (verses 12 – 23). Within the second theme of comfort and peace to the persecuted is where we find why one can say that He can kill your butterflies.

The text is written like this: “When anxiety was great within me, Your consolation brought joy to my soul”. In other words, when you call upon the name of the Lord in your times of being nervous, He will be the breath you need to take! He will be the soothing air you need! He will be the drink of water you need! He will be the answer that is trapped between your brain and your mouth! He will be the consolation that will bring joy to your soul! Oftentimes, I think about how some of us are afraid to deal with bill collectors. Well, God can kill those butterflies as well and give you the proper words to give to them that they may understand you and your situation! There are times and seasons where you have to talk with your landlord and/or bank about your mortgage and there are times where your words are choked. Then, there’s the one who kills butterflies, our Heavenly Father, that will step in, bring you the words to say, bring compassion upon the landlord and/or bank and will provide you the time and re-adjustment necessary to take care of your mortgage! God does not want His people to be in a mode of panic, He wants us to be in a mode of get it done! He wants us to be in a mode of relax, relate, and release! He wants you and me to be at our very best! He does not want you afraid! Psalms 118:6 tells us that “The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid, what can man do unto me?” Psalms 27 tells us that the Lord is my life and my salvation, whom shall I fear, the Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid! No matter how tense you may get before singing, tense before preaching, tense before speaking, tense before talking to someone about a situation, know that God can kill your butterflies, take away your anxiety, and bring consolation to your soul!

In closing, I find myself a blessed man to know a God like ours! He does some great things and in turn, He does great things that are small things! One of those things is give us consolation during the time of our anxiety. Brothers and sisters, for those of you who are concerned about how the bills are going to get paid in the future, know that God has the answer and He wants to bring your anxiety down and relax you! If you are concerned about how things will go as far as landing the job He has for you, just relax, continue to seek His face, and know that there’s consolation from Him that will bring joy to your soul! Are you ready for God’s consolation to bring you joy? If so, try your best to stop worrying about life and its circumstances!