Saturday, November 13, 2004
Self Reflection
Psalm 42:5, raises the question: "Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me?" Sometimes I know why I am discouraged; sometimes I don't. I notice that the psalmist does not spend his energy on analyzing his mood. Instead, he speaks to his soul a firm but encouraging word, saying, "Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God."
I am more prone to discouragement when I put my hope in the wrong things. When I forget to hope in God, the pressures of this fallen world seem much greater. I need reminders to prod my soul back to its proper hope. Sometimes those reminders are elusive, and opening my Bible at random is not the best way to find them. In an effort to lift up my heart, I dwell on things that I remember and have seen to be true in my life. I have experience with them, and I trust them - even when my feelings do not match the facts. They go as follows:
Jesus Christ is the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.
He is able to sympathize with my weaknesses, for he was tempted in every way that I am.
He knows and understands my heart.
There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
God has put my sin as far as the east is from the west.
I did not choose God; He chose me and appointed me to go and bear fruit that will last.
God gives good gifts to those who ask for them.
I have been given every spiritual blessing in Christ.
We are God?s children and heirs.
He is mighty, and delights to deliver his people from their troubles.
Christ has died and been raised to life again; death is no longer uncharted territory.
He is coming again, in person.
Christ has gone to prepare a place for me in a house with many rooms.
All the days ordained for me were written by God before one of them came to be.
He knows the number of hairs on my head.
He is my shepherd.
In this world we have troubles, but He has overcome the world.
His strength is made perfect in weakness.
Nothing in all creation can separate me from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus.
Eye has not seen and ear has not heard what God has prepared for those who love him.
One day, He will wipe every tear from our eyes.
This is not a formula, but dwelling on good helps.
What do you dwell on? What does it do for you?
Amanda...can you post your mother story??? It is powerful!
- posted by -g @ 8:27 PM | | 0 rocks in pond
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