Purity 270 11/20/2020
Good morning and Thank God It’s
Friday!
Today’s photo comes from a friend’s hike at Letchworth State Park. The “Grand Canyon of the East” has some stunning
sights, and I will simply have to see it for myself sometime, possibly in the spring
or summer of 2021.
I chose this pic because it’s the weekend and I encourage you all to get
out there and see or do something that will bring you moments of peace and joy. I also chose this pic because this ravine
reminds me of the continuation of a project at my house that will necessitate
digging a trench and this stream’s cutting a path through the rocks gives me
inspiration to move the earth!
God’s word tells us that by the sweat of our brow we will have to toil and
work to provide for our needs. Working
is a reality that most of us can not get around and if we are not careful we
can get into a negative mindset about the very jobs that provide us with the
means to live and to support our families. So, as we approach the weekend, let’s
be thankful for the time off but also recognize the value of our jobs.
We work to provide for our needs, but we also work for the things we
want. We could find employment that
could provide the bare necessities, but we want better for our families.
I want a generator, so I have to dig a one-foot ditch for the propane
feed. We make decisions about the way we
want to live and have to work to make that possible.
If you are dissatisfied with work, you do have options.
- You can stay and keep doing what you are
doing, and constantly be stressed over the circumstance where you have chosen
to stay and complain to anyone who will listen.
- You can quit.
I know lots of friends who are currently retiring or have walked
away from employment environments that were toxic or hostile to their
mental health. The money and
benefits weren’t worth their sanity.
It never is.
- You can patiently endure and make a plan to
leave. Developing skills or education to go onto better things may be hard
work but if it one day sets you free, the hard work will seem like nothing
when you are finally liberated.
- You can change your perspective, appreciate
what the job provides over what it costs, and stay. Focusing on the positive aspects of life
and being grateful for where the Lord has brought you is a pathway to
peace.
Three of the options require change. Sometimes we don’t realize that our
reluctance to change keeps us locked into situations that are untenable when
other options for work and life are out there waiting to be pursued and
enjoyed. Freedom isn’t being free of
change. Real freedom is endeavoring to be all that God has planned for you. He wants you to cultivate the fruit of the spirit
(Peace, love, joy, kindness, patience, goodness, gentleness and self-control)
and being miserable with the life you have made for yourself is not what He
wants for you.
So, if your less than content, make a change. Trust in the Lord to
provide for you and follow where He leads you.
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This mornings
meditation verse was:
Psalm 118:28 (NLT):
You are my God, and I will praise You! You are my God, and I will exalt
You!
I love this verse
because it really points out our relationship to God and what our appropriate
response to knowing Him should be.
Have you made the
Lord “my God”? That’s personal. He knows you and He wants you to know Him. So, pray and read His word to get to know God
better and to know who you are “in Christ”. We can only apply the promises of God that we
know from God’s word, so read it and apply it to your life.
As for praising and
exalting the Lord, it is the most appropriate thing we can do. He made everything,
including us, and not only that but He has revealed the truth of Jesus Christ
to us and gave us eternal life and the means to live an entirely new life. He
is mighty and worthy of our praise and exaltation. So be sure to regularly
praise and exalt “your God” for who He is and for what He has done.
Today we continue to share from Anderson & Baumchen’s Finding Hope
Again, where I will share the conclusion of Chapter 2 where they discuss the
problem of one sided perspectives and advocate for “focusing on the Software”
when treating depression.
As always, I share this information for educational purposes and
encourage all to purchase Anderson’s books for your own private study and to
support his work:
One-Sided
Perspectives
One Christian said, "My problem is neurological and
my psychiatrist says I shouldn't let anyone tell me differently." She did
admit that she hasn't yet found the right combination of drugs, but she had all
the hope in the world that they eventually would.
In the same church, another Christian
said, "Taking drugs shows only a lack of faith." Of course he had
never experienced depression!
How could two people in the same church
draw such diverse opinions? We have observed the following four perspectives in
our churches that do not reflect a balanced Christian approach to helping those
who are depressed:
1.
"Taking medications is not trusting
God."
2.
"Depression is a physical illness that can
only be resolved simply by taking medications."
3.
"Depression is a spiritual attack and
deliverance from demons is the only answer."
4.
"Depression is the guilt we feel which is
the result of unconfessed sin."
Such views are incomplete, inadequate
and therefore less than helpful for those who suffer from depression. We
believe that God relates to us as whole people (body, soul and spirit), people
who live in a physical as well as a spiritual world.
Focusing
on the "Software"
We close this chapter by looking again at our computer
analogy. If our brain represents the hardware, then our mind represents the
software. The tendency of our Western world is to assume that mental or
emotional problems are primarily caused by faulty hardware. There is no
question that organic brain syndrome, Alzheimer's disease or lesser organic
problems such as chemical and/or hormonal imbalances can impede our ability to
function. The best program won't work if the computer is turned off or in
disrepair.
It would be a tragedy for a godly
pastor or Christ-centered counselor to try helping a person who is physically
sick without suggesting some medical attention. On the other hand, for a doctor
to think that he or she can cure the whole person with medication is equally
tragic. Taking a pill to cure the body is commendable, but taking a pill to
cure the soul is deplorable. Fortunately, most doctors know that the medical
model can take you only so far. Many in the medical profession acknowledge that
a majority of their patients are suffering for emotional and spiritual reasons.
Our perspective, however, is that in
dealing with mental or emotional disorders the hardware is not the primary
problem. We believe it is the software—the mental, emotional and spiritual
components of the whole person.
Other than submitting our bodies to God
as a living sacrifice and taking care of ourselves physically, we can't do a
whole lot to change the hardware; but we can totally change the software. How
we think and what we choose to believe can actually change our biochemistry. In
the next
chapter, we will explore how this software, the mind, functions in relation
to the rest of the body and the external world in which we live.
Finding Hope Again: Overcoming Depression.
------------------------------more
on tomorrow-------------------------
God bless
you all!
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