I prayed this morning for all of us. I prayed against the spirit of depression that is rearing it's ugly head these days and causing all kinds of troubles for some of us. I opened my bible and here is what I read:
"Do not abandon yourself to sorrow,
do not torment yourself with brooding.
Gladness of heart is life to you
Joy is what gives you length of days. (Our prayer group in Billings was called
"The Children of Joy and Gladness" - just
an interesting aside.)
Beguile your cares, console your heart,
Chase sorrow far away;
For sorrow has been the ruin of many,
and is of no use to anybody.
Jealousy and anger shorten your days,
and worry brings premature old age.
A genial heart makes a good trencherman,
One who benefits from his food."
I had to look up the meaning of a couple of these big words:
Beguile means to mislead, deceive, cheat.
Genial means kindly, pleasant, cordial in disposition or manner.
A trencherman is someone who sponges, a hanger-on. Someone who likes to eat, it
says in my dictionary.
So, "beguile your cares" means to mislead, deceive, cheat our cares. They cannot drag
us down.
A genial heart, or someone who is kindly, pleasant, cordial in disposition, makes a
good friend. I wonder if a "Trencherman" is someone who never lets you down,
a person you want to be around - to go out to lunch with! ???
I thought this was a good reading for today. I will follow up with ideas I find to
help bring us our of sorrow and sadness and torment into Joy and Gladness!
Do you have any ideas or ways you have found to bring you our of the doldrums?
6 comments:
This is so timely and so good for me to read. I have been struggling with sadness in missing my mom, very much for several weeks. And that sadness always leads me to sorrow at the way she suffered in those last days. And that leads me to ... Well it just goes and goes until I am crying non-stop for many hours. It has been for me as Karen described herself, like being paralyzed by my low spirit. There is an excellent teaching by Charles Stanley about depression and the very pit of despair. We cannot allow the devil to convict us. We are saved and it is intended and even commanded that we should live in a joy-filled spirit. I think all the answers are in the Bible. ALL of the answers. The problem is that modern pyschology and our own human desire and motivations are contradicted by the truth in the Bible. Sometimes, and this is the worst of all. it is just "easier" to hold onto the depression, despair or sorrow than it is to trust that it is all as it should be.
H.A.L.T.
Never allow yourself to get too:
Hungry
Angry
Lonely
Tired
When I take care of myh physical and emotional needs, I function in a postive mental state. It is easier to handle life experiences both positive and negative, when I am operating from a position of personal well-being: rested, calm, etc.
Ah, Mickey, you have such wisdom! Thank you for all you share in the Blogs.
Something I learned from Joyce Meyer and through my Bible study is not to let Satan get a stronghold in any area:
2 Cor 10:3-5 For though we live as human beings, we do not wage war according to human standards, for the weapons of our warfare are not human weapons, but are made powerful by God for tearing down strongholds. We tear down arguments and every arrogant obstacle that is raised up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to make it obey Christ.
One of Satan's favorite ways to a stronghold is through our thoughts. If you find your mind going to a negative state, then stop and praise God EVEN IF YOU DON'T FEEL LIKE IT! God blesses us when we obey Him even if we don't feel like it.
It's not an easy thing to do, but it isn't supposed to be anyway. God wants us to depend upon Him completly.
Wow - Mickey and Debbie! You have helped me (and probably others) in our struggles with sadness, loneliness, depression and all the ugly results of it. Thank you!
The cool thing about this post of yours Aunt Lonnie is that I always like to look up the verses you are quoting. I have two Catholic Bibles. One is like new and shows no broken in love, as I switched to a Living Bible for the study group I had joined shortly afer I bought that Catholic Bible. And the first Catholic Bible, the one I pulled yesterday to look up these verses you quoted is a tattered, broken, well-loved Bible, I have taped up the front and back covers and tried to save the broken spine by taping it too. I received that Bible one year from Mom. There is a one sentence note in my mom's eloquent script written on the second page, just after the list of books of the Bible. My sadness is related to the woman who taught me where to find the mighty counselor and gave me the tools to know Him. I am glad for the Bible verses you quoted from one of the books you will only find in Catholic Bibles.
Thanks for these postings! I must've come here today because this is where God wanted me to come. I have been finding myself drifting into "stinkin thinkin" for the last few days but I have honestly stopped and prayed through all of it and gave God praise and it really works. I am thankful for these teachings.
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