Depression, Inspiration

Abba...I sense many heavy hearts today. Hearts that are burdened and weighed down by what they are seeing and experiencing.

For some, it seems as if the world is closing in on them and coming against them at every turn. Nothing they are trying to do turns out well and some are even wondering in their hearts where You are in all of this. They are battling discouragement as they walk in the way they believe You have sent them. They are trying to minister to others with seemingly no to little success. They are being faithful, yet wondering if You might actually have abandoned them. They so need Your reassurance and a sense of Your Presence.

And can it be
The canopy of God's blessings
Extends out to me,
Even me.

He gives hope to the hopeless
Life to the lifeless
Sight to the blind

Slippery hope
Snaking horizon
Passionately pursued
Difficult to hold.

If caught...what joy!
New vision! New life!
Vitality bursts
Quenches all thirsts.

But still, in feast,
A niggling doubt,
Will wriggling hope
Abruptly leave?

Hearts afire
Often doused
When death and loss
Their loved ones cleave.

Hope cocooned
Kept for this time
Released by incisions
Fate's cuts unkind.

It splits the horizon
That dams Life from death
Floods desert eyes
With visions of bliss.

No longer slippery
Or threatened by loss
This Hope is alive
Though death exhaust.

Helen Keller once said: “The world is full of suffering. It is also full of overcoming it.”

Perspective plays a role in how we view our current physical, emotional, spiritual, and attitudinal situations. Is the sum total a barrier or an opportunity? Like a kaleidoscope, we can tweak the patterns of what we see, what we feel, how we respond via our perspective.

...he whose might is his god. Habakkuk 1:17, ASV

It isn’t often that such a short phrase of scripture so impacts my heart, but since running across these six words in my reading of Habakkuk earlier this week, I haven’t been able to put them out of my mind.

Is there anything more tragic than making our own limited strength, or “might,” our god? And yet the Bible tells us that many do. To be honest, nearly everyone who doesn’t depend on God ultimately resorts to depending on his own strength. How foolish can we possibly be? The verses surrounding Habakkuk 1:17 tell of the destruction of those who make such a poor choice.

I'm sure you've heard many times that we are to think positive thoughts and indeed we do need to think positive instead of thinking negative. However, just thinking positive thoughts will never change us or our circumstances. We don't have the power to change anything. It takes the power of our risen Saviour living in us to change us and our circumstances. Instead of thinking positive we should "Think Jesus." He is the only one who can change a life and melt a hardened heart into a soft heart.

As I reached to turn on the little lamp beside my bed this morning, I remembered that there have been a couple of times when I pulled the chain that the light flickered and went out. I had to replace the bulb because it no longer gave out any light. Thank God that we have a light that will never flicker or go out and His name is Jesus.

Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. John 8:12 KJV

As I was walking back from the mailbox earlier today, I wished with all my heart that I did not have to use a cane. I'm okay at home because if my knees give way and I start to fall, I can grab hold of something but outside there is nothing to support me so I have to use it. I have to use a cane when I walk because I never know when more of the cartilage in my knees might tear.