Quicken Me, O Lord

Have you ever felt so parched and weary that you could literally feel the life draining out of your body and soul? 

Overwhelmed with the black defeat of sorrow, grief, misery, anguish, despair, hopelessness, despondency or depression, you simply wanted to crawl under some rock and die.

The Psalmist felt this way. His soul was so troubled that he begged the Lord to quicken him, to revive him, to bring him back to life (Psalm 143:11). He lifted up his soul to God and pleaded for revival (Psalm 119:149).

Being dead in trespasses and sin, we were quickened and brought back to life by the Spirit of God at the instant of our heart-felt repentance (Colossians 2:13). We passed from everlasting damnation to eternal life (1 John 2:25; John 3:16-18).

If we continue to live according to the dictates of our fleshly, carnal, human desires, our body and soul will die a little more each day; but if we take up our cross daily and crucify the sinful cravings of our flesh, the Lord will quicken us and we shall live (Romans 8:11-13).

The Word of God is living, powerful and extremely sharp. It is able to divide the carnal desires of our soul from the divine aspirations of our spirit (Hebrews 4:12-13). As we refresh our spirit in His Word, we come to know God and Jesus, whom He sent (John 17:3).

Rather than dying under a rock, we hide in the cleft of the Rock of Christ, our source of living water (Psalm 78:15). We see the joy in everything and we never thirst again (James 1:2-8; 1 Corinthians 10:4; John 4:14).

Regardless of our circumstances, we are saved from the troubling world in which we live. We count our blessings rather than ruminate over our sorrows.

We live in inexpressible joy, which if full of the glory of God (1 Peter 1:7-9). We experience the magnitude of His love and we are filled to the brim with His eternal presence (Ephesians 6:19).

Prayer:

Father God, teach us the secret to a happy life: one focused on You and Your blessings rather than on the depressing circumstances we are facing (John 16:33). Remind us to thank You even in the bad times, through our faith which is strengthened by Your constant provision in every area of our life; for when we do, we experience far less devastation from our trials.

Revive us by Your Spirit in our spirit, soul and body and enable us to strengthen others with the same comfort You give to us (2 Corinthians 1:3-5). When we mourn, You lift us to safety (Job 5:11). We do not fear, because You lift us up in Your right hand (Isaiah 41:10). Oh God of hope, fill us with Your joy and optimism, through the power of Your Holy Spirit (Romans 15:13).

Thought for the Day:

Wait on the Lord, and He will strengthen your heart as you hope in Him alone. - Psalm 27:13-14

Loving Others as Our Self

Jesus made a point of telling us to love others as we love our self. Most of us despise our self, have grudges and disappointments and unforgiveness toward our self. We do not love our self at all (Mark 12:30-31).

Therefore, how can we truly love anyone else? We compare our self to worldly standards and find our self lacking. We listen to significant others in our life and adopt their opinion of us, even if it is negative.

We try all of our life to earn the unconditional love, respect, worth and affirmation we so desperately need. We sell our self short and give up on our self. We feel useless, hopeless, helpless and unlovable.

We are not powerful enough, rich enough, adorable enough, smart enough, talented enough, or attractive enough; we are not enough. We see our self through the eyes of others and we feel disappointed and ashamed.

However, God wants us to see our self through His eyes - as a person He cares about so much that He gave His life for us. He wants us to love our self as He loves us, and then to love others as we love our self.

We can start by accepting our self as He accepts us, just the way we are. We can make better, healthier, wiser and more nurturing choices. We can speak only kind, loving words to and about our self and others.

We can take care of our body, soul and spirit. We can accept our feelings and seek God to find resolutions for our negative feelings and unresolved conflicts. We can judge our self only through the eyes of God, not the eyes of the world.

We can stop using addictions, people, vocation and talents to make us feel better about our self. We can stop abandoning our self and taking our self and others for granted. We can stay in touch with who we are, what we need and how God is leading us all throughout our day.

Prayer:

Father God, enlighten the eyes of our understanding to see our self as You see us: as Your adopted children, co-heirs with Christ of Your entire Kingdom. Remind us to pay attention to our physical, emotional, spiritual and mental needs and to seek You on how to fulfill them.

Help us to accept our feelings and circumstances, even the negative ones, as Your tool in our life to bring us closer to total surrender to Your will and to keep us from depending on our human resources and understanding. Give us Your peace and joy as our strength. Remind us that without You we are nothing; but with You, all things are possible if we simply believe (John 15:5; Mark 9:23).

Thought for the Day:

Take the time throughout the day for a personal physical, mental, emotional and spiritual inventory; meet your needs or ask God to meet them; and then give yourself time to renew Your strength in the Lord and to rise up on wings like eagles. - Isaiah 40:31

Many thanks to Matt Milligan for the use of his photo.

The Futility of Worse Case Scenarios

Painful incidences teach us to be wary of life and to fear the future. We imagine situations that may never occur. These are called “worse case scenarios.”

In order to feel powerful over life, we rehearse these invented circumstances in our imagination, trying to come up with coping skills to deal with any event, which may possibly attempt to blindside us.

This habit causes us to squander our human assets in time, money and energy on an event, which may never happen.

This pattern may also cause a negative attitude toward life and may even result in depression or addictions to provide us with an illusory defense from future pain.

Sometimes, unnecessary and malicious punishment cause us to grow up taking our self too seriously, never learning to laugh at our self or trust anyone in life.

We cannot even trust God, because we harbor the false belief that He allows bad things to happen to us; when actually sin in the world is the real culprit here.

Some people make no decisions at all for fear of making a mistake. If we do make the wrong choice, we overreact and berate our self over our lapse in judgment.

We worry endlessly over things we have said or done, fearing that others will reject us. We rehash past and future conversations in our mind, which does not help at all.

These emotions then fuel negative and addictive habits that we use to cope with our buried feelings. We use them to prevent ourselves from feeling our fears, or to silence the negative thoughts playing over and over in our mind.

These thoughts may be attached to some past experience or connected to some fear regarding the future.

When we put our worries to rest, we will find a whole new world of creativity and expression without the fear of failure and judgment from our self or others. We have God's pervading, abiding peace.

Even if someone disagrees with our opinion, or if we make a mistake, we have no need to fear disapproval. Christ died to take away our fear, insecurities and condemnation (Romans 8:1-2)

Prayer:

Father God, as long as we do our best, that is all You require of us. You liberate us from the crippling effects of fear and condemnation. We enjoy new mental and physical health, restful sleep and peace-filled days without dread of the future (Proverbs 3:24).

As we seek You and focus on Your Kingdom on the earth, You provide all of our needs from Your glorious riches (Philippians 4:19). Thank You for healing us of our need to engage in worse case scenarios to feel the false security they provide. We give You all the praise, glory and honor for our freedom in Christ (Colossians 1:27).

Thought for the Day:

Serenity comes when we ask God to give us wisdom as we make a list of the things, which we can deal with our self; make another list of things we need to ask other people for help to deal with; and lastly make a list of the things we need to leave in God’s capable hands.