“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life and have it to the full” - John 10:10 (NIV)
Have you ever come across someone who felt so beaten down that their face is so downcast. Sometimes the going can be tough and one may feel so beaten that there is no joy left in life. The enemy can also come to cause all restlessness that one can’t stop to pause and look at the sunny side of life. It seems then to one such is sitting on an avalanche of problems, and life has lost all manner of joy.
But there can also be situations where one is depressed much as a result of an internal system chemical imbalance.
People do not just wake up wanting to be and look sad. There can be something overwhelming to lead one to be downcast.
Now for us believers here is the difference. We have a treasure unknown to the rest: our hope is in our Lord and Saviour Jesus. He has come to give us abundant life because of the hope we place in Him. Certainly it is not always easy - especially when circumstances surrounding one are of such nature that one’s spirit is so crushed.
But let us always take comfort. “These things I have spoken unto you that in me ye may have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulations: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world (John 16:33) KJV.
Prayer for today: Lord Father in heaven, God of Abraham today I pray that whatever circumstances I am going through I never lose the hope I have in you and be of good cheer!
Related upcoming events
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19/04/2024 - 20/04/2024 All day“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland” ( Isaiah 43:19).
Just before fire was unleashed down on Sodom and Gommorah, Lot was told to pack up with his wife and two daughters and leave their homestead. Now, once out of danger, “But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt” ( Gen 19:26). Perhaps here we might pause and ask why she was bothered to look back.
Of course it could have been that old “curiosity killed a cat” mistake! Yet, it could also have been Lot’s wife was not sure where she was going and longed for her old life back. This is a common error. There was nothing stirring to look back. Just before Lot’s neighbors had attacked his house eager to rape his visitors. “They called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them” ( vv 5). Was there anything worth looking back to!
The case of Lot’s wife could be anyone else’s experience. The Lord has plucked you out of some mess. You have been delivered to a new life. Yet, somehow you decide to look back, as though there was anything good and worth longing for. Sometimes it is a bitter past you have been delivered from. Other than rejoice in your new blessings you keep being drawn back!
A wise caution goes, “As a dog returns to its vomit, so fools repeat their folly” ( Proverbs 26:11). If the Lord has just led you out of a certain mess why look back like it was much better! Instead look ahead, for “he who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters, who drew out the chariots and horses, the army and reinforcements together, and they lay there, never to rise again, extinguished, snuffed out like a wick: Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past” ( vv 17- 18).
Prayer today: Lord Father God of Abraham, maker of heaven and earth, I thank you for delivering me from the darkness of the past and I look forward to a bright new future in you, this I pray in Jesus’ name!
