^{TO BEAT DEPRESSION SING PRAISES TO GOD!}

Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance. Psa 42:5 

There is no time when singing has become so difficult as it has now. The churches are closed. People are in indoors. The children are on the floor and everything else is just scattered. Singing in such conditions, especially praises to God, calls for supernatural powers. This is just not the way we were created to live.

And so depression happens. It is a relatively new word – and the disease. And in the Bible it doesn’t appear directly but it is implied in a lot other words. Words like spirit overwhelmed, spirit growing faint, bowed down, miry clay and the valley of the shadow of death.

Depression happens because of many interrelated issues. So I will not make light about it. It is a hell I have been to but God brought me back (I have a fifty thousand word work in progress based on that subject alone, praise God! That is my testimony). But chiefly the main cause of depression is a self-inspection which has gone awry.

In Babylon they were so low until they found no reason to sing anymore (Psalm 137). So they hang their harps upon the willows and sat down, yea, and wept. But just as suddenly they sprang to their feet again! No one can hold his God down for long! ‘If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.’

What can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus? Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors, shouted Paul. And we shout with him too, though our thorn is still in the flesh. Because when we are weak, then are we made strong, and in his ‘foolishness’ we are made wise. God calls us to his banqueting table not only for his love, but also to the fellowship of his suffering.

I know. Sometimes it seems like the more we trust the more we suffer, the more doubts assail us, the more we are condemned, the more we are misunderstood, and the more we are hated for no cause! But don't worry. It is the battle coming to the heat. And the hour before dawn is usually the darkest. But no matter how long it lasts the morning arrives eventually – and what glory it is!

No, our faith is too precious to let go! It is gold! How can we lose the pearl again after years of searching? We have been out the whole night but we caught nothing. Don’t worry, in the morning we will find Jesus at the shore with fish ready. He always serves the best wine last! So let us pick up our harps upon the willows and begin to sing again!

The psalms are bottles filled with our own tears. They sing our own music. And we sing them with abandon especially at night. Bury yourself in them and you will find comfort any time. And remember those are pains which David personally went through. What will your pains produce? God forbid that we should ever forget such a God!

HopeisnotAshamed

RETURNING HOME TO THE FATHER

And when he came to himself…. Luk 15:17a 

There are many who are lost like the prodigal son today. They left home. They went to ‘a far country’ to find life – but they found death there.

We are forever restless. And King Solomon gave us the best testimony of this in his Ecclesiastes. He had everything. But in the he despaired of it all, ‘Useless, it is all useless!’ His restlessness came to an end only after he returned home to his father. His Song is a divine testimony to that, ‘I found him whom my soul loveth’. God can give you such a song too in your darkness.

Abraham’s heart fluttered at the thought of a city built with ‘foundations, whose builder and maker is God.’ He lived in a tent but it is not a tent that was in his sight. It was a city. In this lockdown what do you see, a tent coming apart at the seams or a city?

The prodigal never saw the life that teemed at his father’s home. He only saw ‘a far country’. Have we taken God’s graces for granted for too long and now he is speaking very loudly so no one can fail to see or hear him?

No doubt before returning home the prodigal must have been a wreck not only physically but also mentally. Would he be forgiven? Would he be accepted? Could he overcome his shame or would he rather die? But thank God he came to himself at last! He might have remained a tragedy all his life – if he had not.

And so what is making you very restless at this present time? Before he left home the prodigal thought he knew himself very well. The pigs ‘in a far country’ taught him that he didn’t. And only after his return home to his father did he learn the truth - that he was a prince after all! What is this present crisis teaching you? May that lesson be your testimony to your children and children’s children for generations to come!

HopeisnotAshamed

PEACE LIKE A RIVER!

For thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river. Isa 66:12a  

I can bet there are people, since Covid19 visited us, who have never lacked their sleep. You will not find them ransacking the news channels, poring over the number of deaths and projections. These people are fixed. They know whom they believe. And ‘though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea, though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof,’ they will not fear. They have been searched. God knows them. And that is what matters.

It is disheartening to lose a loved. It is even more distressing to see how they are being buried. In a moment they are gone. It is heartbreaking. And yes it matters. But there is an even more urgent thing that matters. How shall the living cope? Shall we die too because we see no hope or no end in this thing? No, we are going to live. We must live.

There are things which we can only hear in silence, and things which we can see only when the streets are empty. May those empty places speak to us now…like I can read in one this: The just shall live by faith. Another: I will not leave you comfortless. Another: I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. Another: Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. And in another: And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Yes it is possible to sleep through a storm now. And when such a peace comes and finds you, my dear brother or sister, you will never doubt that it was from God. Father, give us this peace!

HopeisnotAshamed

SUCH KNOWLEDGE IS JUST TOO WONDERFUL!

Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me. 

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it. Psa 139:2-6 

Something happens when you know that God knows you – when you are as confident as David was. Why? Because you are confident that you are a sinner by nature. Because you know you have repented. Because you know no matter how much the devil throws darts of condemnation at you, you are eternally forgiven and preserved!

‘Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? (Rom 8:33-34). And because you know that – you know and know and know! That this world – this suffering, blood and tears are not permanent – they are passing away! You know and you know! That no matter what happens – what God has promised ahead is far, far much better than anything you have ever seen… ‘No eye hath seen or heard…’ And because you know that – you know that you are free at last!

When you have such assurance that God is acquainted with all your ways then you know that you have nothing to fear. Such knowledge is just too wonderful, David cried in ecstasy. Now wouldn’t you too? Wake up therefore, and sing!

HopeisnotAshamed

GOD’S DISCOVERIES ARE ALWAYS A BIG SURPRISE!

Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. 

THE fear of being known is real. Ordinarily the face we wear outside is not the face we wear inside. It is what Adam and Eve realized upon their first guilt encounter and that shock still lives in us.

It is often only in closet – and alone with God – that we show him our true face. And this dissonance is at the root of our depressions – and our distractions. The latter keep us busy, but inside we fear the storm which is silently brewing may soon burst.

But it is possible to live without fear. Do you feel empty? Do you feel lost? Are you afraid? Turn to God and God alone and tell him so…

‘Search me, O LORD…’ cried King David. And that was after he began with such a strong affirmation that he was known! But being a believer does not shield one from spots of unbelief or doubt, especially at times like this. But God is faithful. He is near. He will hear and he will answer.

Being searched is painful. But it is necessary. It is why Frost lyricized… Two roads diverged in a wood/ and I— I took the one less traveled by/And that has made all the difference. It may be a lonely path to be counted with the few. But there has never been an easy road to freedom.

And so in these solitary confinements…in these empty streets…in these quiet wards and quiet nights…the stars are still up, and the daughters of music are still at play. And may you - in these vacant places - God make you to see and hear things you had never heard before.

HopeisnotAshamed                                  

HOPE IN THE TIME OF TROUBLE!

And Achan answered Joshua, and said, Indeed I have sinned against the LORD God of Israel, and thus and thus have I done. Jos 7:20  

And Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah…and they brought them unto the valley of Achor. Jos 7:24  

And Joshua said, Why hast thou troubled us? the LORD shall trouble thee this day. Jos 7:25 

Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her. And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt. Hos 2:14-15 

Sin always brings trouble. It is what befell Israel when Achan took ‘of the accursed thing’ and the anger of the LORD was kindled against the children of Israel. But Achan was found out as sin always finds one out. Achan died because of his trouble. Achor means trouble. But the place of calamity may yet become a place of blessing. Yes we shall sing there!

There was a time when Israel sinned again and brought trouble unto themselves. And then she was exiled to Babylon – where she lost all hope. ‘By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.’ How could they sing the Lord’s song in a place like that, they wondered. Darkness can happen in broad daylight.

But God didn’t forget his people. No, he has never done that. It would be a travesty against his name to do that. He sent them hope, as Jeremiah records, ‘For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. And I will be found of you, saith the LORD: and I will turn away your captivity…’ 

God finishes what he starts. He is still working. Have you stopped your believing? He restores ruined places, Ezekiel exhorts. No doubt but we shall dance again in this place!

O Lord, ‘Thou hast shewed thy people hard things: thou hast made us to drink the wine of astonishment.’ But thanks unto you Lord because the valley of Achor has become a door of hope! We shall sing again here. We shall drink of the fruit of the vine here again. Church doors will open again. And we shall glorify your name as the only living God who is worthy to be worshipped now and forever more! Amen!

HopeisnotAshamed

I AM KNOWN!

O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me. Psa 139:1

David’s life was so wide and varied for one man. He was a shepherd, singer, poet, soldier, king, family man – and an adulterer and murderer. His ups were so up that God called him a man after his own heart. And his downs were so down that they almost brought him to the dust.

He was so brave and yet he was also so fearful. Yet he had one thing no one (or anything) could take away from him – his God! He was his life. He ate, slept, fought and dreamed God. Therefore he could truthfully and confidently say that God knew him. And that was his trust, confidence, hope, faith, and his peace which passes all human understanding (Phi 4:7). For ‘his truth shall be thy shield and buckler,’ he wrote. What truth? God’s word. And what was that word? ‘I shall never leave you nor forsake you.’ ‘Fear not.’ ‘For it is God who fights for you.’

So whether in his very low-downs or very highs David never forgot for even one moment that God knew him. What are your fears, troubles and worries? Make God your 'rock, fortress, deliverer, strength, and high tower.' And then you can say confidently with David, ‘I am known!’ Have a known day today!

HopeisnotAshamed

FAITH BREAKING LIKE THE WAVE!

The LORD on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea. Psa 93:4

  

Few things are as impressive as waves breaking upon the shore. Seeing those breakers rushing upon the land, rolling and lifting high, and then scattering into showers upon the rocks, is a sight to behold! Now this is especially a sight which arrested the Jew. I assume he would pause in his walk and behold this orgy of beauty and anger – and while he might be awed by the spectacle, but I doubt he felt threatened by it. For what were waves even in their exquisite beauty and anger compared to the power of his Almighty God? To the Jew, whose music from childhood revolved around his God, everything else beside him seemed insignificant.

History attests to this fact of his God. He was the God who overthrew the Egyptian Pharaoh and his army in the sea, who made his people to walk across a swollen river on dry ground, who fed his people with manna for forty years in the wilderness, and who made even the sun to stop in its tracks…so what was this spectacular display of an angry wave to a Jew?

For he knew whom he believed and why. But we have the Bible now, the New Testament and Christ, and which is a far better witness than that of the Jew. So yourself and I, whom do you believe and why, and what is your testimony? Is anything too hard with this God? Is Corona mightier than him? I pray not! Christ has conquered death and the power of Satan.  God has given him all power and a name which is above every name. God, give us a confidence like that of the old saints who stood firm and unshakeable amid heavy trials even up to the end…in Jesus Christ mighty name I pray, Amen!

HopeisnotAshamed

A THING CALLED THIRST!

In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. Joh 7:37-38

Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw. Joh 4:13-15  

Desire is both a good and a terrible word. It is an impetuous animal. It is a marauding beast. If uncontrolled it can eat even its children.

It is true God has given us all things for our enjoyment. ‘And thou shalt rejoice in every good thing which the LORD thy God hath given unto thee, and unto thine house, thou, and the Levite, and the stranger that is among you’ (Deu 26:11).  But God has also taught us to rule our passions. Because if we aimed at having everything the world has to offer, we would drop dead with exhaustion. Desire can get out of bounds, break the lock, and flee with our lives. But then what shall we have gained in the end? I have seen a gravestone with a broken head… I have been to a cottage whose hearth went cold a long time ago… It is a terrible state to be in, and all because desire came to the door and broke it down!

So what should we do? ‘All things are lawful unto me,’ so cried the apostle, ‘but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any’ (1Co 6:12).  And then he expounded: ‘That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.  For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries’ (1Pe 4:2-3). 

Self cannot redeem self, and only God can do that. He takes the life, the whole life – breaks it, and in his fingers he begins to mold a new thing. ‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit’ (Joh 12:24). And it is this new thing which shall never become thirsty again. May you in this season of isolation and resurrection find that water. We have tried everything O God, but we are still in a very dry place! Give us this water, that we thirst not, neither come we here again to draw. Amen!

HopeisnotAshamed