Have you ever thought all kinds of bad things about yourself? Do you see God as mad at you and that He is withholding His love from you because you’ve messed up? Do you believe all those bad thoughts about yourself? Boy have I been there and still go through it…
At the Lord’s direction I’ve opened up two bibles I used during my worst days of the mental battle (see The Vortex post). I came across this highlighted passage this morning:
Psalm 73:21-28
“I was senseless and ignorant;
I was a brute beast before you,
Yet I am always with you;
you hold me by my right hand.
You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will take me into glory.”
The failures and flaws in us the enemy points out are truth, but the lies are about how God feels about us despite all this. Even at our worst (a brute beast) Jesus is there. There is no place He will not go, no place off-limits to His Presence. He is with us. He is loving us even to be there. He loved us with each step to the Cross – there is no worse place we could ask Him to go. If He would go to the Cross for us, He isn’t afraid or restricted from going anywhere else to be there for us.
“Yet I am always with you” – Praise God!
When the enemy assails our minds with our worst, Bless God for His Best–Jesus, Savior, Redeemer!
Praise is a weapon! The enemy hates true praise and worship and won’t stick around for it. So sing to the Lord, Bless His Holy Name, Praise the roof right off because Jesus is worthy.
“you hold me by my right hand”
He doesn’t let us go. The right hand represents strength – He gives us strength. We cannot be taken away from Him. We can walk away, and turn away, but we cannot be taken away from Him. The enemy will tell you that you are far from Him, that you aren’t really His, that because of what you’ve done He doesn’t want you anymore…lies.
He holds onto us, and He holds our strength because He is our strength. We don’t have it in us to win the battle, but in Christ we have the victory.
“You guide me with your counsel”
Time with Jesus…how else do you hear what someone has to say then to spend time with them? You don’t really know a person with whom you spend no time. We pay worldly counselors to “fix” us and prescribe drugs that will take away the feelings, but there is Jesus… standing by us, ready to counsel and guide us through any situation but we don’t ask… we don’t even seek His counsel.
I am not against counseling, and I’m not condemning anyone that would need a drug for true chemical imbalances…but what I do believe, and know from experience, is Jesus’ counsel to be the best of all. He has walked me through enough relational conflicts, depression, loneliness, fears, isolation, and childhood wounds to know that He is my answer.
It is interesting; I have so much more faith in these verses this time around the mental battle than I did the first time. The first time I had hope in the verses, but now I have confidence in them. Don’t be afraid of the battles, they serve to make us stronger and more like Christ.
“These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” John 16:33
Dreams and Other Things 