If you look at the world, you
will despair.
If you listen to the media and
its propaganda, you will get depressed.
Watch the news, and there is no
hope.
If you look at the governments
and leaders of this world, you will get anxious.
What we see, and what we hear,
has a great impact upon our lives, both mentally and physically. Most people do
not realize just how powerful words can be. There is life and death in the
tongue.
How we speak and what we say will create a reaction in others as well as in ourselves. We can lift someone up to hope and confidence, and we can smash all expectation and wishes from their lives through a single sentence uttered out of bitterness, hate, judgment, or misconception.
Words can be weapons, or they can be ointment. Our tongues have
the power to energize our children to achieve, or they can render them defeated
and unable to even try to be better.
Think about how many times
somebody has said something to you that just seemed to drown you of all hope and
wash away the little self-respect you did have. Now think of the times when
someone said something good toward you, and remember how that lifted you and
made you feel better.
What we hear, and especially
nowadays, what we look at, can affect our health as well as our mental
well-being.
The governments and manipulators of
what is happening in our world right now know this, and have used everything in
this category and arsenal to its full effect, bringing the entire population of
the world to its knees.
If you look at your failure, you
will drown in despair.
If you look at your sin, you will
become hopeless.
If you look around you for
someone to help, you will wonder if anyone actually cares.
If you look for a person who is
faithful and true to their word, you may well give up.
BUT, if you will just turn around from all
your negative sightseeing, and look to that old wretched cross on a hill called Calvary,
where the Prince of Peace, the Sovereign of the Universe, the loving Saviour of
the world hung in pain and agony, then you will find all that you need.
Stand up, turn around, and face
Jesus.
He is more than all this world, more
than all the people, more than all the newscasts, more than all the sadness and
loneliness of life; and more than all the words ever spoken by billions of
human beings all rushing nowhere themselves.
He is the one who lifts you high
above your failures and sets you among the princes of his kingdom.
He is the one who takes away your
sin and removes it forever, and now presents you as one who never sinned.
He is the one who is ready to
help, and carry you above the storm of life, show you how to walk on the raging
sea, and shove the mountains of fear and despair into the deepest sea.
He is faithful. He does not break
his promises. What he says, he does. He cannot fail you ever. He is reliable and
trustworthy, and is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Take a hold of his hand. Take a
hold of his strength. Take a hold on his faithfulness.
Surely he has born our griefs and
carried our sorrows. He has born our sicknesses and lifted our sorrows from off
our backs.
People load us with the burdens
of this world, with the demands of their greed and selfishness, with their dictates
and expectations. Jesus said, ‘Come unto me all you who are burdened, anxious,
stressed, pressurized by this evil age, and I will give you rest.’
Come away into a quiet place, and rest awhile. Let the storm blow; let the nations rage; let the selfishness of an insolent age carry on with its ‘matrix’ delusion.
Turn off the noise of this
deranged humanity, the technological gadgets that keep you away from hearing his voice and losing peace with
God and his blessing upon your life.
Stand back, and stand next to the
amazing Friend of sinners, and gaze out onto his glorious creation and his promises
of a better world to come.
Forget the things that are in the
past, the good, the bad, and the ugly, and reach out to what he has promised to
all those who love him and honour him.
Let the pretenders and the false
preachers chase their own deceptions, but stand next to the Rock, on the Rock, and
you shall not be moved: for greater is he that is in you, than he that is in
the world.
JGM 2022
