Samuel D. High
sdhigh@aristotle.net
-----Original Message-----
From: Apostle Tom <pressingon@hotmail.com>
Sent: Fri, 5 Sep 2008 19:13:37 -0500
To: <pressingon@hotmail.com>
Subject: Morning Manna (Sept. 6); BP: Jer. 20; RBTTY: I Cor. 15:29-58; Ps.
September 6 “Bi-Polar Faith”
“Cursed be the day wherein I was born; let not the day wherein my mother bare me be blessed. Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my father, saying, ‘A man child is born unto you,’ making him very glad.”
Jeremiah 20:14-15
How we should give thanks that our God is merciful (Lam. 3:21-23) and still our Lord, even on the “down days.”
Bi-polar.
Increasingly, we hear more and more about this psychological disorder nowadays, along with other emotional/mental maladies like obsessive-compulsive behavior, anti-social disease, schizophrenia and paranoia, etc. Why, it’s enough to make you go crazy!
But, in a strange sort of way, today’s Manna is comforting to us for it shows us that even one like Jeremiah had days when he was “up” and moments when he was “down.” Like Elijah, one minute you’re standing on your
Or, like David, one minute we’re slaying giants in the Name of the Lord (I Sam. 17:1-51) and the next minute we’re running for our lives (Ps. 42) and crying, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken me” (Ps. 22:1) or “no man cares for my soul” (Ps. 142:4).
In Jeremiah’s case, everything had piled up on him and he’d reached the point where he didn’t feel like preaching anymore (20:9a). Yet, God’s Word was “as a burning fire shut up in his bones and he was worn out from resisting/refusing to do what he knew he’d been called to do” (v.9b).
So, he, like David, began “encouraging himself in the Lord” (I Sam. 30:6b). He began declaring “who God is” (v.11a) and how one day He’d put the enemy in his place (v.11b-12). He also encouraged himself (and others) to “Sing unto the Lord and praise Him, for He has delivered the soul of the poor from the hand of the evildoers” (v.13).
Focusing on the Lord—“Who He is and what He has done/promised” (Heb. 11:6)—certainly restore our perspective in the midst of perplexity (cf. Ps. 73). Likewise, singing praise unto the Lord helps us from getting “down-in-the-mouth” and allowing words of criticism, cynicism, sarcasm, ingratitude, etc., to dwell there.
But, today’s Manna shows how quickly all of this can evaporate when we change our focus to ourselves and our problems. Like Peter walking on the water, when we take our eyes off Jesus and focus on our problems we begin sinking in desperate despair (Mt. 14:30). Jeremiah had already forgotten “Cursed is the man that trusts in man and makes flesh his arm—whose heart departs from the Lord” (Jer. 17:5). That’s why he, like Job, said “Cursed was the day I was born” (Job 3:11-13). Only when we focus on Christ—His Presence, Power and Promises—are we “blessed” and at peace (Phil. 4:4-9; Heb. 12:2). And, only by trusting in Him are we assured when our faith falters.
No comments:
Post a Comment