Self Rebuke

Verse for Today: Monday, November 01, 2010

Psalms 42:5 - Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him for the help of His presence.

The question posed by the Psalmist is one that all God's children need to ask themselves when they are in despair. It is an opportunity for introspection because there is no need for God's children to be in despair or despondency because their God lives, cares for them and works on their behalf to help them in all situations. Despair and frustrations encroach into our minds through circumstances of various kinds. Some of us are born worriers even though we are called upon to be warriors against the evil forces which cause us to worry. Anxiety is part of our basic sinful nature, but since we have a new nature, there is no need for us to slip into despair and loose hope. When anxiety comes into our minds, it comes into destroy our peace and joy and make us murmur, grouchy and grumbling and we become complainers. When the sun of righteousness is in our minds and hearts, there should not be any darkness in us and so the dark clouds outside need not darken our thinking, feelings and emotions. We have a blessed hope based on the promises of God as given in the Word of God. Our hope is in the Lord who is the Rock of Ages and He never changes no matter what the circumstances are. So when our hearts are filled with despair and as our peace and sleep are disturbed, we probably need to have a talk with our souls and ask as to how we can justify being in despair. We might need to rebuke ourselves and reprimand our inner man and instruct not to despair.

Dear friend, you are called upon to become an ambassador of peace, joy and hope. Your hope is built on nothing else, but on the Lord Jesus Christ who never changes even when the whole world changes and becomes unstable. He keeps His promises to us that He will lead His children through the storms and waves of this world. We need to tell ourselves this truth to make us stronger believers in the promises of God. The cloudy environment of this world of which we are a part makes us want to remind ourselves about our position in the Lord, our privilege in holding on to the promises of God and our faith to hope in the Lord. His presence is our strength and we need to go to the presence of the Lord to recharge the spiritual batteries of our faith so that we can use the Lord's power to fight the spirit of discouragement, hopelessness, despair and despondency. These negative emotions are the embodiment of the power of the enemy which he tries to use against our life of faith to shatter our spiritual standing. We need to look at the past victories that the Lord has given us and praise Him for those victories over the power of the enemy. We have to also train our minds, emotions and hearts to become stronger in our faith in the Lord and His power to release us from the clutches of discouragement from the enemy. As we look at what the Lord has done for us in the past, we can count the multifarious blessings which we have received from Heaven and live continuously to praise Him for all that He has done for us and what He has promised to do for us in the days to come. This will help us to emerge from strength to strength to fight the emotional warfare that the enemy has unleashed against us through situational aberrations like discouragement, despondency and despair.

Psalms 43:4 - Then I will go to the alter of God, to God, my joy and my delight; I will praise You with the harp, O God, my God.

Thought for Today
When we put our trust in the Lord, we have given up our right to become despair.

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