S05E057, Pounding Hearts, and Rest, Andy B 2 Minute Video

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It’s no fun when you are in a place of deep sleep and are rudely woken at 3am with your heart pounding: this has become my normality too frequently. And, while I’ve been told by my cardiologist to just ignore palpitations - because I know what atrial fibrillation feels like – and carry on as normal, I can’t.

At 3AM, when my heart starts pounding away badly, all I want to do is go downstairs - as quietly as possible and wait it out. Card games, a cup of tea and a film,  or two, is as much as I can manage.

I can want it ‘not to be’…but it is what it is.

So how, then, did God know to speak to Kind David, many thousands of years ago, who then wrote down the words of his own struggles - which were identical to mine…in 2023, in the lounge in my home?!?

Psalms 55 contains 3 small verses - written for anybody struggling with any kind of heart rhythm issues! Because it speaks of a heart pounding in your chest; of the terror that generates in your mind and how desperately you want to escape to anywhere peaceful just to escape away from what you’re facing.
And that, right there, is exactly how I feel each time I face an episode of heart palpitations – or atrial fibrillation, for that matter.

If I die I know I’m going to heaven and that provides all the peace I will ever need.

But do you know that same peace?

If you do, great!

If you don’t, please reach out to me so I can pray with you.

Just a thought...

Andy B

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[00:00:00] So another Andy B Two Minute Video, and the title of this one's really quite specific, Pounding Hearts, and Rest. Now, I don't know about you. But, sometimes, I read the Bible and think, how did God know to write those words, just for me, at three o'clock in the morning because I can't sleep cuz I've got a situation I can't mentally process, or physically resolve. How did God know to write those words so many thousands of years ago, planned before time even began, for me on a Wednesday morning at three o'clock AM. 

[00:00:39] How did God know to do that? 

[00:00:41] That's where this one really comes from. Because if I'm, if I read this to you from the Old Testament, the Book of Psalms, and this is Psalm 55, verse 4 to verse 7.

[00:00:51] My heart pounds in my chest. The terror of death assaults me. Fear and trembling overwhelm me, and I can't stop shaking. Oh, that I had [00:01:00] wings like a dove then I would fly away and rest. I would fly far away to the quiet of the wilderness. 

[00:01:07] Now, I would never advise you, ever, to think, oh, I think I'm supposed to just jump to this scripture and read this scripture and obey it. I would always caution against that for lots of reasons. I'm not gonna go into, into in a two minute video. 

[00:01:19] Everything needs to be done with some rationality, with some logic, with the Holy Spirit and some wisdom. You need to pray through things. But I actually did pray for God to lead me to some scripture. That's good! He led me to here, which is good, and I read it, which is good, and it fits the situation I'm in, which is good.

[00:01:36] But I'm not gonna use that as a license to think anything more than that, okay. Just a quick theological point. Maybe I'll do a training, a teaching series and training on that later. 

[00:01:44] My heart pounds in my chest.

[00:01:45] I've been struggling with palpitations for a while. I've got atrial fibrillation. The doctors say I haven't got it. I've had it twice over a period of about five years. They're saying it's not something I've got. It's just something my heart is able to have. Any one of us can have it at any point. Well, I've now got [00:02:00] palpitations. 

[00:02:00] They've stated after a long heart monitoring session, you do not have atrial fibrillation, Mr. Berry. But I now have palpitations. 

[00:02:08] One of the side effects of the medication that's trying to help me not have atrial fibrillation, which I don't have anyway, is palpitations. And my body shakes, my heart, shakes, my chest, my chest shakes, and I found this scripture and it provided so much comfort for me.

[00:02:23] My heart pounds in my chest, the terror of death assaults me.

[00:02:25] It's what it feels like. 

[00:02:26] Fear and trembling overwhelm me. I can't stop shaking. 

[00:02:29] I can't, but then I rest in God's arms. And I do the best I can to focus on who Jesus Christ is, and I seek His peace, and the terror is reduced, and it goes away because I know that if I do die I'm going to go to heaven. 

[00:02:46] Do you have that kind of certainty?

[00:02:50] Ask me if you don't!!

[00:02:52] Just a thought.