WHATS IMPORTANT RIGHT NOW? Here on FB we read articles, watch videos, and see posted signs and pictures, and the messages can scramble our brains. There are battles everywhere, both physical and spiritual, and it is very difficult to choose your fight. You know what we are up against, but maybe there is one battle we dare not lose, and that is the battle for our minds, our souls, our hearts. Can we help anyone if we lose our own soul? Can we be ministers of Christ if we are brokenhearted, captive, visionless, hopeless, depressed, or despondent? This has been on my mind consistently for the past couple of weeks. Today we discussed Psalm 42 focusing on the question....why are you cast down, o my soul, and why are you disquieted????? This is a question we really need to find the answer to when we feel ourselves sinking into the pit of despair and losing our hope. People all around us are in this condition and we are of little use to them if we are also buried. Some folk suffer from chemical imbalance(s) and medication helps, but never solves the problem, and at some point we still have to ask the question, why are you cast down and why are you unsettled?. It is interesting what happens to us when we reach this condition. Often people around us abandon us because, lets face it, were not that much fun to be around. In the 42nd Psalm we see several very typical reactions when we get depressed. He quits going to fellowship, he feels abandoned by God, he feels overwhelmed by the enemy, and he loses hope. Our sound mind has a wall around it that protects it, and as someone explained today, it is like the helmet of salvation, protecting the mind and providing the peace and confidence of eternal life, justification, and sanctification. But when that wall falls or that helmet is knocked off we become exposed and hope walks out passing fear who is on the way in! You can hear the honest conflict in the voice of the Psalmist, in one breathe he is honoring God and in the next he expresses how he feels abandoned and helpless. This is the state of depression or the beginning of the brokenhearted condition. If we can master the skill of speaking to our own soul, taking a close assessment of the situation, and determine WHY we are cast down, we can become skilled at conquering this giant in our lives. When we do that we can begin to fulfill Luke 4 and bring good news, freedom, vision, and healing to a lost, blind and dying people. Often that giant is a conglomeration of small things glued together in our minds and it becomes overwhelming, but as we break it down (why are you cast down....) we find we can take it on one piece at a time. There is seldom a magic wand or a one time fix, but we find through the Psalms men who determined in their hearts, ahead of the trouble, how they would react when it arrived. Do that, determine in your heart even though you may not FEEL it! I will not pull away from fellowship and cut myself off (I will enter His gates with thanksgiving in my heart, I will enter His courts with praise.). Determine ahead of time you will determine why you are down, you will talk to God, you will seek wise counsel, you will surround yourself with strong believers, and you WILL find hope in God. You will determine not to believe the lies, but to hold tight to the truth.
Posted on: Sun, 26 Oct 2014 18:57:11 +0000