It is sad that some Christians are prone to see the dark side of everything, to dwell more on what they have gone through than on what God has done for them. Ask for their impression of the Christian life, and they will describe their continual conflicts, their deep afflictions, their sad adversities, and the sinfulness of their hearts, with hardly any allusion to the mercy and help that God has granted them. But a Christian whose soul is healthy will come out with joy and say, “I will not speak about myself but to the honor of my God. He has brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my steps. He has put a new song in my mouth; praise to our God. The Lord has done great things for me, and I am glad” (see Psalm 40:2–3, 126:3). A summary of experience like this is the very best presentation any child of God can make. It is true that we endure trials—but it is just as true that we are delivered out of them. It is true that we have our own personal corruptions—we mourn over this—but it is just as true that we have an all-sufficient Savior who overcomes these corruptions and delivers us from their power. In looking back, it would be wrong to deny that we have been through Bunyan’s Slough of Despond and Valley of Humiliation, but it would be equally wrong to forget that we have come through them safely and profitably. We have not remained in these dark places, thanks to our almighty Helper and Leader, who has brought us “out to a place of abundance” (Psalm 66:12 ESV). The deeper our troubles, the louder should be our thanks to God, who has led us through everything and preserved us until now. Our grief cannot ruin the melody of our praise—we consider hardship and sadness to be the bass line of our life’s song, The LORD has done great things for us, and we are glad.
- C.H. Spurgeon Morning and Evening.
Nobody has really known the side of me that had for years, for decades, had the constant, nagging, seemingly endless, despair running through my mind.
I easily was crushed in spirit. It's what brought my to considering suicide in 1999. I indeed was brought up in a Christian home. Was going to Church pretty much every week. Throughout the week. Had several Bibles. Was considered to be involved. Yet there was the deep dark thoughts that came every day of my sinful life. Satan loved to remind me of how disgusting I must look to God. Of my failures.
I never learned to be happy in my successes in Christ, possibly because they were short lived. Almost immediately I would see a sin and whatever was gain felt like a loss.
In 1999 Jesus changed all that. In the years since He is still changing all that.
What did Jesus do? What changed so much? I stopped trying to fix what He was doing is a simple way of putting it.
Many years later there was a sermon series at a Church we attended in the evenings. Whatever was left of my internal defenses were utterly destroyed. It was in the weeks and months after those trips to the altar, He radically began changing my life in ways that I gave up on dreaming about.
I had to quit in order to succeed. I preached a sermon once on that subject of being a successful quitter.
I used to easily see the negative side of everything. It's not so hard to do. Everyone was born in darkness knows all about darkness and what's in it.
It's remembering that which happens in the light of Christ is what we need to write down and remember. He exposes the deeds of darkness. He reveals truth in everything about everyone.
Those in this world today are no different from the people we read about in the Bible. So what we have technology. Guess what, I firmly believe that there's enough evidence to prove that technology existed before the flood of Genesis. Technology way more advanced than today's. God's left enough evidence for us to find.
So being advanced as a people means nothing. Ecclesiastes says there is nothing new under the sun. Further proof of the stages of mankind.
We can choose to keep holding onto what Jesus is telling us to let go of and stay miserable or we can do as He says and let go. You see we all miss the fact that He isn't tugging on what we are holding onto in hopes that our grip slips and He wins. It's just us. Just us holding onto sin, onto regrets, onto sadness, onto despair, onto depression. Us. As long as I keep looking at myself I sink.
Peter sank because he believed his eyes when they weren't on Jesus.
Look at your life. How much time do you spend worrying about what's going on around you? How much time do you spend getting angry about what you have or don't have? How much time do you spend holding onto regrets or the past, not living in the here and now? How much?
It's been said to let go and let God.
You will never be able to defeat whatever is going on inside you on your own.
Never.
Only by letting go and asking God to do whatever He wants will you find success.
Trusting Him for your present and future.
Only you can drop everything to embrace Him. You who are saved cannot hold onto your life and your cross too. You who aren't saved cannot find life without your cross from Christ. Life begins with taking up our cross and following Christ.
Then we can rejoice in the Lord always as the Scriptures say. We can find success. We can let go of what weighs us down.
Listen people. Jesus is standing right in front of you. He's just waiting for you to say the word and He's ready to do what needs done to save you and make you like Him.
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