I've been hearing a lot lately from people who are simply at the end of their ropes. They have felt like they are getting the shaft from life itself, a Job-type experience. (You know, the Job from the Bible. Yeah, that kind of feeling.) It's a look with suspicion toward the future because it doesn't look to hold much hope because it will probably look pretty much like today.
Okay, so it's common to feel like this sometimes. But lately it seems to have grown...and may be infectious, becasue I may have caught it too.
No, I am not climbing aboard the pessimist train, I can't afford even a short ride there. But then again, none of us can.
I was driving to a meeting the other day listening to my new Bible (gotta love audio Bibles!) and I heard psalms 42 & 43. As the deer pants for streams of water, so I long for you, O God...my heart is breaking...why am I so discouraged? Why so sad? I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again --my savior and my God!
That's it! That's what we needed, I needed! A simple reminder that discouragement comes not from circumstances, but from our focus. When we look to humans to bring us hope, we will always be discouraged. When we look to human institutions, to friendships, to prosperity, to new circumstances (the list could go on nearly forever) to bring us happiness or even to change our attitude, we'll fail because they are only temporal. A new car is only new until you drive it off the lot or maybe until the new models come out. Then it loses it's luster. It's the same for anything, absolutely anything that is not God!
That's why those psalms touched me so this week. They reminded me that my discouragement was simply misplaced faith. While it is okay to have faith in people and circumstances, this cannot take the place of nor sit above our faith in God, who's never changed, left, or wavered in dependence and trust.
Discouraged? Lost your faith? Don't look in the Lost and Found, it's right where you left it and the last place you'll look...within. It's not lost, just misplaced. Re-place your faith in God...
...For you are God, my only safe haven...Send out your light and your truth; let them guide me. Let them lead me to your holy mountain, to the place where you live. There I will go to the altar of God, to God - the source of all my joy.
Peace ><>
pc
1 comment:
You know that's the truth of my situation. I hold on to the wrong things in life. The winning lottery ticket, yeah right! When I come to church and listen to you preach I always feel you are talking to me (like this devotional). But I realize everyone sitting around me are propably feeling the same way too.
God has pulled me back. Though I have a long way to go I know I won't be alone.
Thanks
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