03-08-13 Receiving Encouragement From Father

Proverbs 119:27-29 "Make me understand the way of Your precepts; So shall I meditate on Your wonderful works. My soul melts from heaviness; strengthen me according to Your word. Remove from me the way of lying, And grant me Your law graciously."

What does it mean to you to be 'down in the dumps'? Maybe some answers would be: Depressed, sad, grieving, in turmoil, 'feels like a 8,000 pound elephant is sitting on my chest'. It could be the effects of just about anything - the weather being gloomy, a death in the family or a close friend, something the Lord seems to have His finger on that disturbs us, something goes wrong with our day or like we planned it to go, we wake up on the wrong side of the bed (does that mean we should always wake up on the 'right' side of the bed?). Or we could feel downcast or disturbed by our own wrongdoings or sin.

What do we do with the former? We take the hand of our Lord, our Comforter, our Father and let Him gently lead us back into the Light. Ever notice when the sun is out and you're standing in it - you look up and it just makes your whole body feel good or rejuvenated or...? That's where He wants to lead us. Sometimes, it takes a little while to get there and sometimes it doesn't take long at all. We talk to Him and we receive from Him His encouragement to keep going on. The going on may get tough, but He's 'tougher'. He's saying, 'Lean on Me'. When we can't walk, He picks us up until we regain our strength - but we're always moving toward the Light. I was reading the other day, that a sheep will always move towards the light - it doesn't like shadows or dark places. Jesus is our Shepherd and the Light of the World... we will always be drawn to Him - or back to Him. Father says, 'Come on, little one, let's do this one together.'

What do we do with the latter? We repent. Father takes it. Father forgets it. Once we repent, we don't take it back, and we don't keep dwelling on it! Here's the issue, dwelling on something we've already taken care of (including making amends to those we've hurt - if that's the case), then it can quickly turn into false guilt. False guilt (or self-condemnation) is when we beat ourselves up for something over and over and over again. When it gets to the point where that's all we think about and talk about and even cry about, then it can become a stronghold of guilt, grief or condemnation. This requires more repentance and now we're dealing with a structure that needs to be torn down. That is, after we tell the enemy (the strongman) to get the heck out of our lives and that we aren't going to listen to the lies any longer - that we're bad or weak or unworthy or (fill in the blank). We were forgiven the moment we asked for forgiveness and the enemy has no legal right to stay any longer. We ask Holy Spirit to come and increase our faith. It rises up in us and we see the strongman weaken as Jesus walks into the picture. It looks at Jesus and we see a frail 'weakman' scurry away. Then Jesus say, 'Let's dismantle this stronghold - you don't need it anymore'. We don't see condemnation in His eyes, but grace and mercy and encouragement that we can do all things through Him, because He strengthens us.

I leave you with one last verse of blessing. Instead of listening to a song for the next few minutes, meditate on this:

2 Thessalonians 2:16-17 "May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word."