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Coping with the Plague of Your Heart – George Aljian

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Imagine for a moment that you’re going on a trip. The tickets are a gift; a friend has paid the price. All you have to do is pack your bags and get to the airport. Now as you know, packing isn’t easy, and dragging heavy bags around the airport is exhausting. Remember the days before luggage had wheels? How did we do that? Heavy baggage can make even a vacation seem like a burden. Well, the point is this: You and I have set out on an exciting journey —a journey to God’s new world. The trip is free; the ransom paid the price. All we have to do is get there. And that’s the hard part, right? And why? Because each one of us is carrying some type of heavy baggage on this journey. Now, it’s true our life is blessed. As Isaiah 65:13 says, figuratively, we’re eating and drinking while the world goes hungry and thirsty. Still, Acts 14:22 says: “We must enter into the Kingdom of God through many tribulations.” We have anxieties. And Proverbs 12:25 says: ‘Anxiety in the heart can weigh it down.’ The heavy baggage we carry can make even the journey to God’s new world seem like a burden. Well, the good news is that we have help. Open your Bible to 1 Kings 8:38, 39. Here Solomon prayed on behalf of Jehovah’s people at the inauguration of the temple. And what he said in that prayer can help us put wheels on our baggage so it’s easier for us to carry.


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At 1 Kings 8, beginning with verse 38, Solomon says to Jehovah: “Whatever prayer, whatever request for favor may be made by any man or by all your people Israel (for each one knows the plague of his own heart) when they spread out their hands toward this house, then may you hear from the heavens, your dwelling place, and may you forgive and take action.” Now let’s stop there. Notice that phrase “each one knows the plague of his own heart.” In stating that, Solomon wasn’t referring to the nation as a whole. He was referring to private suffering —the baggage each person had to carry, the problems no one else might know about. And although Solomon evidently had a specific type of plague in mind —one that required forgiveness— by extension his words can apply to any anxiety that weighs us down. For example, chapter 2 of the “God’s Love” book applies Solomon’s words to a personal weakness we might struggle with. The May 1, 2010, Watchtower applies it to the grief a person feels after losing a mate. The point is: Any anxiety that weighs us down can be considered a plague of the heart. What is the plague of your heart? What anxiety weighs you down on your journey to God’s new world? Whatever baggage we carry, the scripture we just read confirms that we have help. Notice, Solomon prayed that Jehovah would not only “hear from the heavens” but also “take action” —if not to eliminate our load then at least to help us carry it. For the rest of this discussion, we’ll see how Jehovah can do that in three situations: (1) when circumstances discourage us, (2) when people upset us, and (3) when negative emotions overwhelm us. In all situations, Jehovah can help us cope with the plague of our heart. Let’s see how.


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First, when circumstances discourage us. Now, when it comes to circumstances, life is unpredictable. In this system, things can change just like that with one phone call, one accident, one diagnosis. Let me tell you about Anny, who was diagnosed at age 19 with pulmonary fibrosis, and at first she felt this was completely unfair. Anny says: “Pulmonary fibrosis affects heavy smokers, “and I had never had a cigarette in my life! “I was depressed, I wouldn’t eat, “and I wouldn’t talk to people. “I would just lie in bed and think about how miserable my life was.” Now, Anny is one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, and she was one when she got sick. She understood the real cause of her illness, and she knew about the new world. Still, this discouraging circumstance threw Anny off course. She says, “I prayed and prayed and prayed about it, but it felt like I was just talking to the wall.” Now, regardless of our age, we may relate to Anny’s comment. When any of us face a discouraging circumstance, we pray about it repeatedly. And if nothing changes, we may wonder whether Jehovah cares about or even sees what we’re going through. A discouraging circumstance can become a plague of our heart. How can we cope with it? Well, let’s look at 2 Corinthians 12:7-9. Here the apostle Paul faced a discouraging circumstance —one that he calls “a thorn in the flesh.” Now, as you realize, we don’t know what that thorn was. It might have been a physical affliction. Whatever it was, as we read these verses, try to detect two things: (1) what Paul could not control and (2) what he could control.


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Second Corinthians 12, beginning with verse 7: “To keep me from becoming overly exalted, I was given a thorn in the flesh, an angel of Satan, to keep slapping me, so that I might not be overly exalted. Three times I begged the Lord about this, that it would depart from me. But he said to me: “‘My undeserved kindness is sufficient for you, for my power is being made perfect in weakness.’” Now let’s stop there and look at our two components. First, what couldn’t Paul control? The answer is obvious —the circumstance itself— his “thorn in the flesh.” Paul even prayed about it three times, but nothing changed. The circumstance was beyond his control. What could Paul control? His response. And part of that response was to accept the reality of his situation to the point that he says in verse 9: “Most gladly, . . . I will boast about my weaknesses.” Once Paul realized that his thorn would not be removed, he didn’t waste time doubting God’s love or asking ‘Why me?’ or comparing himself to others who seemed to have an easier life. No, Paul accepted reality. He viewed his thorn as “an angel of Satan,” and he got about the business of endurance. Now, Paul’s experience gives us a key to coping with any discouraging circumstance. First, break it down into two components: (1) what we can’t control and (2) what we can. And often, like Paul, what we can control is our response. That is a choice. When we face a discouraging circumstance, we could choose to become bitter about life, angry at God. We could even let it stumble us as some have.


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Or we can choose a better response. And like Paul, a better response usually involves first accepting the reality of the situation. Now, at first that might sound cold, but accepting reality is vital. Why? Page 7 of the April 2014 Awake! says this: “By learning to accept what you cannot change, . . . you are also more likely to look for ways to cope with the situation . . . You start to take a measure of control of what seems to be an uncontrollable situation.” Now, Harold King is an example of that. As you know, he was imprisoned for his faith, confined to a four-and-a-half by nine-foot cell. Brother King certainly couldn’t control his circumstance, but he could control his response. Once Brother King accepted the reality of his situation, he thought of things that he could control —things that even prison walls could not prevent him from doing. For example: He prayed; he memorized scriptures; he wrote Kingdom songs; he celebrated the Memorial right there in his cell alone; he even went out in service by creating imaginary householders. Once Brother King accepted reality, he was able to take a measure of control of what seemed to be an uncontrollable situation. A brother whose wife was diagnosed with cancer relates how they did something similar. They couldn’t control the disease. But what could they do? Quoted in the August 2011 Awake! the husband says: “We decided that at regular intervals we would not talk about the cancer for a whole day. Instead, we focused on the positive aspects of our life. It was like taking a vacation from the disease. Regularly we had a cancer-free day.” Now, that’s how this couple took a measure of control. Others might choose a different method, but again the point is this: Once we accept reality, we’re more likely to find ways to cope with the situation and to even take a measure of control over it.


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But is accepting reality all we can do? No, there’s something more. The article “Learning to Live with the Unchangeable” in the March 15, 1978, Watchtower suggests this: “In whatever state or condition you might find yourself, look for its compensations or mercies.” That’s exactly what Paul did in connection with his thorn. For example, look back at 2 Corinthians 12. In verse 7, twice Paul says that his thorn kept him “from becoming overly exalted.” Humility—that’s one compensation. In verse 9, Paul says God’s power is “made perfect in weakness.” Increased reliance on Jehovah —that’s a second compensation. Here’s a third. Let’s look at Philippians 4:11. Now, Philippians was written about five or six years after Paul wrote to the Corinthians about his thorn in the flesh. So that thorn may have been one of the things on Paul’s mind as he wrote what we’re about to read. At Philippians 4:11, the second part of the verse, Paul says: “I have learned to be self-sufficient [or according to the footnote, “content”] regardless of my circumstances.” Now, with these words, Paul expresses a vital truth that contentment, even happiness, does not depend on having ideal circumstances. You know, sometimes we talk as if it does. We say things like: ‘I’ll be happy when I get a better work assignment’ or ‘I’ll be happy when I get married.’ ‘I’ll be happy when I get a better room.’ ‘I’ll be happy when I get a better roommate.’ The idea is: ‘I’ll only be happy when my circumstances change.’ It’s been said that people who think that way strive and strive but never arrive because as soon as they get that circumstance that was supposed to make them happy, another obstacle looms up and they’re discontent again. Paul chose to be content, despite his circumstances. And notice, he says in verse 11: “I have learned” this.


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Contentment might not have been his default position. Perhaps like many of us, Paul had a tendency to veer towards negativity when confronted with a trial. But Paul learned to be content even when his repeated prayers for relief were not answered the way he would have liked. In fact, we could summarize the lesson Paul learned this way: Don’t let the blessing you’re praying for blind you to the compensations and mercies you have. You know, sometimes when we’re going through a trial, we tend to narrow the focus of our prayers by, in effect, telling Jehovah how we expect to be blessed. And yet, Jehovah may already be giving us compensations and mercies that we haven’t considered. That’s what Anny, the sister with pulmonary fibrosis, came to learn. Remember how she said, “I prayed and prayed and prayed, but it felt like I was just talking to the wall”? Anny also admits, “At first, I was even mad at Jehovah for not helping me in the way I wanted to be helped.” How did Anny come to see compensations and mercies even in the midst of a serious illness? Here’s what she says: “My dad opened my eyes. “While I was so upset at Jehovah, my dad wouldn’t stop praying to him and thanking him and talking about how good Jehovah had been to me. I had just been through the worst months of my life, and my dad was thanking Jehovah. ‘For what?’ I asked him. He told me: “‘You have no idea how expensive your medicine was, and I wasn’t even working. Somehow, we managed to get everything we needed. There was always food in the house. Brothers kept coming to make sure we were eating. Jehovah gave us the strength to keep going and not give up.’” And then Anny’s dad told her this: “Just because Jehovah didn’t help you the way you wanted to be helped doesn’t mean he didn’t do it.” In essence, her dad was saying, ‘Don’t let the blessing you’re praying for blind you to the compensations and mercies you have.’ Anny now says: “Jehovah helps us in ways we can’t see at first because we’re so overwhelmed by what we’re


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going through. But I’ve learned that Jehovah has a way of doing things, and his way is always better than my way.” We can adopt a similar viewpoint. If we can see the compensations and mercies in our situation, then we’ll be better able to cope with a circumstance that has become a plague of our heart. So to review: How can the apostle Paul’s example lighten our load when a discouraging circumstance is weighing us down? First, accept the reality of the situation. That may open our minds to practical ways to deal with it. Second, look for compensations and mercies. Don’t let the blessing you’re praying for blind you to the blessings you have. Those two suggestions can help us cope with a discouraging circumstance that has become a plague of our heart. Now let’s move on to our second point: when people upset us. A sister we’ll call Helen has been pioneering for six years. She serves as a construction volunteer. She helped out for an extended period on the Warwick project. Needless to say, Helen has been around a lot of people —Jehovah’s people— and that’s a blessing. But Helen admits that at times it’s also been a test. Why? She says: “One of my greatest weaknesses is a critical eye toward others. Rarely do I have a good first impression of a person; it’s always tainted by some negative observation. At first, even the best of people seem too quick to laugh, too popular, even too spiritual. It’s a terrible, ugly weakness I have.” Now, perhaps we can relate to Helen’s comment. We might tend to get annoyed or even hold a grudge when someone says or does the wrong thing.


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And we think that tendency will change when we come to Bethel, right? ‘Finally, I’ll be around people who are easy to get along with.’ And then at some point —whether it’s after a few months or a few minutes— the bubble bursts, and now we’re not sure whether the brotherhood is a blessing from Jehovah or a test from Satan. How can we cope with that when people upset us? Well, let’s look at Romans 12:18. And as we read Romans 12:18, try to detect two things: (1) what we can’t control and (2) what we can control. Romans 12:18 says: “If possible, as far as it depends on you, be peaceable with all men.” Now let’s look at our two components. First, what can’t we control? What others say or do; that part depends on them. What can we control? Again, it’s our response —that is a choice. When someone upsets us, we can choose to let it grow or we can choose to let it go. We can choose to “be peaceable with all men.” That part, Romans 12:18 says, depends on each one of us. So how can we choose to be peaceable when someone upsets us? Well, let’s look at Judges 8:2. This shows us one thing we can do, Judges 8:2. Here Gideon avoided what could have turned out to be a messy conflict. You remember the story. Gideon and his army had just won a battle against Midian. And at that point, the tribe of Ephraim starts complaining. Now, even though they were eventually called into the battle and even though they captured two Midianite princes, the Ephraimites felt that they should have been called in sooner and they blamed this all on Gideon. Judges 8:1 says that “they quarreled bitterly with him” about this. So now there’s a conflict.


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How did Gideon handle it? Notice what he says to the tribe of Ephraim at Judges 8:2: “What have I done compared with you? Are not the gleanings of Ephraim better than the grape harvest of Abiezer?” What does that last question mean? Well, Gideon was from the family of Abiezer. So, what he’s saying to the Ephraimites is: ‘The grapes that your tribe leaves behind are better than the best grapes my family can grow.’ And then he reminds the Ephraimites that they had an important role in the battle, and again he asks them: “What have I done compared with you?” Verse 3 says that after that the Ephraimites “calmed down.” Problem solved—and how? What did Gideon do here? In the face of a conflict with the Ephraimites, he did not put them down. He raised them up. He found something good about them —in this case, their grape harvest, something totally unrelated to the conflict— and for the sake of peace, he praised them for it. Now, we can take a similar approach. When someone upsets us, look for the “grape harvest.” Even if it’s just to ourselves, we can find something good about the person, perhaps something totally unrelated to the conflict we’re having. Now, that’s what Helen, the sister I quoted earlier, is trying to do. She says: “For every bad thought I have toward a person, I try to make myself find something good about them. When I take that step back, it’s easier for me to get to know a person from a loving standpoint.” We can do the same thing. When someone upsets us, take that step back; look for the “grape harvest.” Find the good in that person. That’s the first thing we can do. Now, a second thing we can do is identified in Galatians chapter 2. Let’s look at that. And before we read from this chapter, Galatians 2, consider this question: Who are we most likely to get upset at? Probably someone who wrongs us,


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wouldn’t you think? But you know, there’s one type of person we might be even more prone to get upset at. You know who it is? Not someone who wrongs us, but someone who “rights” us by giving us correction when we need it. And in Galatians 2, we’re going to see an example of that. Here Peter was given correction, and he needed it. But notice how the correction was given, and then we’ll see why, in this case, it might have been exceptionally hard for Peter to accept it. At Galatians 2:11, Paul writes: “However, when Cephas [that’s Peter] came to Antioch, I resisted him face-to-face, because he was clearly in the wrong.” Paul is upset at Peter, and why? In verse 12, he tells us: “For before certain men from James arrived [those who were Jewish Christians], [Peter] used to eat with people of the nations; but when they arrived, he stopped doing this and separated himself, fearing those of the circumcised class.” Now, what’s Paul saying here? That Peter would change how he acted depending on who was watching, and Paul called him out on this. He says: “I resisted [Peter] face-to-face.” And then in verse 14, Paul really gives it to Peter. He tells him straight out: ‘You act one way when the Jewish Christians are watching and another way when their backs are turned.’ In verse 13, Paul calls this a “pretense,” or as the footnote renders it “hypocrisy.” Imagine: Paul is calling Peter a hypocrite. And he does this not privately but “before them all,” verse 14 says. Can this get any worse? Yes, and it did. Under inspiration, Paul wrote about this incident in his letter to the Galatians, which we just read from. Now, to make a comparison: Today, Internet messages spread from one person to the next. And when a message circulates rapidly and widely, people say it went viral.


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Now, they didn’t have the Internet in the first century, of course, but they did have letters —and letters circulated. And this one, Galatians, did more than just circulate from one person to the next or even one congregation to the next. No, under Jehovah’s supervision, this one ended up in the Bible —billions of copies down through the centuries still being printed, translated into thousands of languages. Now the whole world can read about Peter’s hypocrisy, as we just did. Now, the Bible doesn’t tell us Peter’s immediate reaction. Initially, he may have been upset at Paul, for all we know. But in the end, Peter chose to be peaceable. How do we know that? Well, in his second letter, which was written about 12 to 14 years later, Peter called Paul “our beloved brother,” and he even said that Paul had God-given wisdom. That’s at 2 Peter 3:15. So in the end, Peter looked up to Paul, and for good reason. As he acknowledged, Paul had God-given wisdom to see not only into Scripture but also into people. He could even see into Peter. And instead of viewing that as a threat, Peter saw it as a benefit. And that’s because he chose to be peaceable. Now, you and I can do the same. In fact, we need to. Why? Because from time to time each one of us will encounter a “Paul” —someone who gives us correction that we need to hear, but it comes to us in blunt terms, perhaps at a most inappropriate time, and it stings.


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And sometimes the counsel that stings the most is also the counsel we need the most. If, like Peter, we choose to be peaceable, we’ll be able to take it not only when someone wrongs us but also when someone “rights” us by giving us needed correction. Let’s be honest, though, it’s tough to do that. We can be so hypersensitive at times, and no wonder. We live in a world where it’s just common to blame someone else for our mistakes. If someone breaks something, it’s the manufacturer’s fault for not making it unbreakable. A speeding ticket —that’s the policeman’s fault because he had to meet a quota. If a child fails English, it’s the teacher’s fault for not teaching English good enough, or well enough. In this world, correction is largely viewed as an insult, not as a teaching tool. But God’s Word does not support the world’s view. The Bible tells us of people that stayed in or went out of God’s favor depending on how they responded to counsel. So if we choose to remain bitter at the person who corrected us, we need to remember this: We are letting our upset emotions have far too much power over us. Resentment is heavy baggage that will only add to our load on our journey to God’s new world, and who needs that? Instead, we need to be peaceable, not only when we’re wronged but also when we’re righted through correction. So to review: How can we lighten our load when someone upsets us? First, like Gideon, look for the “grape harvest” —find something good about the person.


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Second, like Peter, be willing to accept correction regardless of the manner in which it’s given. Those two suggestions can lighten our load when people upset us. Now, let’s move on to our third and final point: when negative emotions overwhelm us. As imperfect humans, we are prone to have a distorted view of ourselves. A few might ‘think more of themselves than necessary,’ as Romans 12:3 says. But others have the opposite problem —thinking too little of themselves, plagued with feelings of worthlessness. When they look at themselves, what they see is a gross misrepresentation of reality, as if viewing themselves in a distorted fun house mirror. For example, one Witness quoted in the September 15, 2014, Watchtower said this: “When I think about everything I’ve done wrong, it can make me feel as if there’s no way anyone can ever love me, not even Jehovah.” Another, quoted in the January 2006, Awake! said this: “I knew that Jehovah had forgiven me for my mistakes, but I did not want him to. I wanted to suffer because I hated myself so much. While I knew that Jehovah could never have conceived of a place . . . like Christendom’s hell, I wanted him to invent one just for me.” Now, as these examples illustrate, our emotions —which ironically Jehovah created to enhance our love and our worship— can sometimes turn against us and make us feel condemned. And that does more than just hinder our joy; it also hinders our ability to give Jehovah full glory for the magnitude of his love. So how can we cope with negative emotions that at times overwhelm us? Well, let’s look at Romans 7:22-25. Now, here the apostle Paul describes negative emotions that at times overwhelmed him. And as we read these verses, try to detect two things: (1) what Paul could not control and (2) what he could control.


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Romans 7, beginning with verse 22: “I really delight in the law of God according to the man I am within, but I see in my body another law warring against the law of my mind and leading me captive to sin’s law that is in my body. Miserable man that I am! Who will rescue me from the body undergoing this death? Thanks to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Now, let’s identify our two components. First, what couldn’t Paul control? Occasional feelings of self-doubt which Paul said made him feel miserable. What could he control? Once again, it’s his response. And Paul’s response is right there in verse 25: “Thanks to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Here Paul gives us the first key to coping with negative emotions: meditate on the ransom. Make it a personal study project if necessary. Collect scriptures from the Bible and material from our publications that build up appreciation for what Jesus’ death means not just to the world of mankind in general but to each one of us as an individual. Meditating on the ransom can help us cope with negative emotions, and why? Because as the April 1, 1995, Watchtower says: “Christ’s ransom sacrifice is the most potent answer to the satanic lie that we are worthless or unlovable.” Let’s think about that statement. Why does it call the idea that we are worthless or unlovable not just a lie but a “satanic lie”? Well, who really profits when we believe that we’re unlovable to Jehovah? Who really benefits when we wallow in thoughts of self-condemnation? Whose purpose is really served when our emotions plague us to the extent that we feel like giving up? Obviously, it’s Satan. And consider the irony of that. Who really has proved himself unworthy of Jehovah’s love? Him! Who really is beyond Jehovah’s forgiveness? Him! Who really does the ransom not apply to? Him! And yet now, in one of his greatest “crafty acts,” as Ephesians 6:11 calls it, Satan tries to throw all those feelings of condemnation that he deserves on you and on me. The ransom gives us permission to throw off that heavy baggage.


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Evidently, that’s what Paul did. Yes, at times he felt miserable about himself, as we read at Romans 7:24. But he also wrote at Galatians 2:20: “I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and handed himself over for me.” Now, in stating that, Paul wasn’t being egotistical or thinking more of himself than necessary. He simply understood a basic Scriptural truth —that Christ died for sinners, not for perfect people. The fact that Paul was so keenly aware of his imperfections was evidence that he was the very kind of person that Jesus gave his life for. The ransom helped Paul refute any feelings of self-doubt, and it can do the same for us. Again, the April 1, 1995, Watchtower expresses that thought beautifully. It says: “If life in this system has taught you to see yourself as an obstacle too daunting even for God’s immense love to surmount, . . . or your sins as too vast even for the death of his precious Son to cover, you have been taught a lie. Reject such lies with all the repugnance that they deserve!” Isn’t that what we do with all of Satan’s other lies? Do we accept the doctrine of the Trinity? No! Do we believe in hellfire? No! Do we believe that life evolved? No! Do we believe that we are unlovable and worthless to Jehovah? Our answer to that question should be no, and it should be just as decisive as our no to the other questions. And why? Because the idea that we are worthless or unlovable to Jehovah is a false doctrine, and we need to reject it just as firmly as we would reject any of Satan’s other God-dishonoring lies. Meditating on the ransom can help us do that. But besides meditating on the ransom, there’s something else we can do to cope with negative emotions. Let’s look at Psalm 61:2. What David prayed for in this verse presents us with another key to dealing with negative emotions, including feelings of worthlessness.


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At Psalm 61:2, David says to Jehovah: “From the ends of the earth I will cry out to you when my heart is in despair. Lead me onto a rock that is higher than I am.” Here, David is asking Jehovah for a different view, an elevated one. And that’s what we need when negative emotions plague us. As David wrote, we need to be placed on a rock that is higher than ourselves, higher than our imperfect and distorted reasoning. Now, Scriptural truths can help us do that. For example, when the heart is in despair, as David wrote, we may feel that no one can love us, not even Jehovah. But the elevated view from the rock reveals a Scriptural truth —Romans 8:38, 39— nothing can “separate us from God’s love.” When the heart is in despair, we feel that our mistakes are too great for Jehovah to forgive. But the elevated view from the rock reveals a Scriptural truth—Romans 5:8: “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” As we mentioned before, Jesus died for sinners, not for perfect people. When the heart is in despair, we can’t picture ourselves in Paradise because in our heart we feel condemned. But the elevated view from the rock reveals a Scriptural truth —1 John 3:20: “God is greater than our hearts and [he] knows all things,” including the reasons why we tend to think so negatively of ourselves. The point is: Gradually we can replace lowly negative thoughts with elevated Scriptural truths. Now, we just mentioned three of those truths. Here’s one more. Let’s look at Malachi 3:17. Now, in its application, Malachi 3 is talking about Jehovah’s spiritual temple. But in principle, this verse shows us the high value that Jehovah places on his people.


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Malachi 3:17 says: “‘And they will be mine,’ says Jehovah of armies, ‘in the day when I produce a special property’” or, as the footnote renders it, “a treasured possession.” Let’s stop there. Notice how proudly Jehovah talks about his people. He says: “They will be mine.” He even calls his people “a special property.” And make no mistake, that term isn’t thrown into the Bible just to make us feel good or to give us empty praise. No, Jehovah’s people are special to him. And why? Because he produced this property that we just read. In other words, Jehovah is cultivating in each one of us the very spiritual qualities that make us special to him. So again, going back to Psalm 61:2, when the “heart is in despair,” as David wrote, we may only see our failings and imperfections. But the elevated view from the rock reveals a Scriptural truth —Malachi 3:17— we are “a special property” to Jehovah despite our flaws. And if it’s difficult for us to accept that, then we need to remember that Jehovah is the one who sets the standard for what’s special here, not us. One sister who had an extremely negative view of herself was helped to reason on that. She says: “A spiritually mature sister helped me to look at myself realistically as an imperfect human with strengths and weaknesses, no better or worse than any other brother or sister struggling with imperfection. An elder greatly helped me too by telling me that no one comes to Jehovah without being drawn by His spirit (that’s John 6:44). So Jehovah must see something lovable in me, and who was I to despise what Jehovah loves?” And notice how this sister is slowly moving away from that distorted mirror and coming to see herself the way Jehovah does. We can do the same. Is it easy? Absolutely not.


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Second Corinthians 10:4 talks about “strongly entrenched things” that we need to overturn, and it lists “reasonings” as one of those things. Now, that could include our imperfect and distorted reasoning about our value to Jehovah. That reasoning might be so strongly entrenched that we need to keep praying about it, keep studying, (or as we mentioned earlier) keep meditating on the ransom. But as we gradually replace lowly negative emotions with elevated Scriptural truths, we’ll be better able to move away from that distorted mirror and see ourselves the way Jehovah does. So to review: How can we cope with negative emotions that at times overwhelm us? First, meditate on the ransom. It is the most potent answer to the satanic lie that we are worthless or unlovable to Jehovah. Second, gradually replace lowly negative thoughts with elevated Scriptural truths —truths that will help us see ourselves the way Jehovah does. Those two suggestions can help us cope with negative emotions that have become a plague of our heart. Now in conclusion, a final thought: Whatever plagues our heart, even if it’s a situation that we haven’t touched on this evening, remaining spiritually active will lighten our load. Now, we at Bethel are blessed because we have plenty to do in Jehovah’s work. And really, wherever we serve, theocratic activity will balance our thinking and help us to put the principles we discussed into practice. But our strongest means of coping with any plague of our heart is identified at Psalm 62:1, 2. Let’s read those verses. What David says in Psalm 62 can lighten our load and make it easier for us to carry.


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Psalm 62, beginning with verse 1: “Indeed, I wait silently for God. My salvation comes from him. Indeed, he is my rock and my salvation, my secure refuge; I will never be greatly shaken.” Let’s think about that last phrase “I will never be greatly shaken.” What does that mean, and how can it help us cope with the plague of our heart? Well, to illustrate it, last year my wife and I were on a flight from El Paso to New York when the plane hit turbulence. And this wasn’t ordinary turbulence; this turbulence was so bad that the pilot told the flight attendants to sit down and fasten their seat belts. It was a nerve-racking experience. Obviously, we survived. But a day or two later, I did some research and I found out something about turbulence that many passengers don’t know. You know what it is? It’s that planes are built to handle turbulence, even the really bad kind. In fact, when the pilot says he’s searching for smoother air, he’s not doing it so much for our safety as he is just for our comfort and to keep the coffee in our cups. Turbulence might shake a plane, but the plane will not be greatly shaken. To cope with the plague of our heart, we need to understand something similar about the turbulence going on in our life. When we face a trial, our tendency might be to panic, to grip the armrests (so to speak), to worry about what the next moment will bring, to fear that we are going to crash. But we can have confidence that, as David said, we will never be greatly shaken. We can handle the turbulence of any trial that comes our way. And why? Not because of our own strength, but because we feel as David expresses in verse 2: “[Jehovah] is my rock and my salvation, my secure


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refuge.” So yes, we may be shaken by our trial, but with Jehovah’s help, we will never be greatly shaken. By all means, then, whatever hardship we face —whether it’s circumstances that discourage us, people who upset us, negative emotions that overwhelm us, or anything else —let us continue to make Jehovah our secure refuge, confident that he can help us cope with the plague of our heart.

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