It’s easy to get discouraged today when we look at the world around us and see so much evil at work. Maybe it actually has been this way all along and we just didn’t know. In the years before the internet and 24/7 news reports, we maybe just didn’t hear about all the bad things that happened every day. Today a murder takes place in the smallest of cities and the whole world hears about it. A child is abducted and an alarm goes out nationwide. Is all this a good thing, or has it only added to the stress and fears? We are living in a time of depression…. not a financial depression, but a deep painful depression that has affected the souls of people and their ability to hope and to believe that better things are coming.
So many today look at life and say it is a living hell. Even young people who have yet barely lived are sinking in despair and hurts that they are afraid to speak about. “Talk to an adult,” they are told, but who can they trust when all seem to lie and make promises they can not fulfill? Where do they find the hope so badly needed, the strength to overcome? Our hope lies only in our ability to believe….but how do we stoke this ability? How do we wake up the souls of man and help them overcome this depressive attitude?
If you have ever tried speaking to a person who is depressed, you know it is not easy. They have an argument or excuse for every suggestion you make and reject every offer they get for help. Sometimes, the only way we can help is to pray. Only God can reach into the depths of a soul that is hurting and He alone can heal that hurt. But we must not stop trying to reach those who need the strength only God can give. We must look to Him for help in offering them hope. Those of us who have found that God is the answer have a responsibility to share Him with those who need Him so badly.
If we found the cure for a dreaded disease, would we keep it to ourselves? Wouldn’t we want others to know, so they can be cured too? Would they believe it, if we simply told them about our cure, or would they have to see the results in us and others who tried it? Trying something new is scary…. and the results are not the same for every one of us so it could take a lot of convincing for some.
I don’t mean we should beat them over the head with our Bibles or constantly confront them with the truth of God’s words, but we must show them by simply allowing Jesus and His love to shine through us. Be patient and don’t give up. At times we wonder why, as we know it is within His power, doesn’t God simply reach down and save those we are praying for? But we find in Isaiah 59: 1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear. 2 But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.
Sin is what separates one from God and God is the only one who gives faith to those who choose to believe. We can’t save anyone, we can only tell them the truth of God’s love and His desire to save them. The rest is up to Him. Let us pray for wisdom then in dealing with all people that He would give us the words to say at the right time and leave the rest to Him. In Proverbs 25: 11 we are told: A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.”
Isaiah 55: 8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. 10 For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: 11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
Let us pray for words fitly spoken and that the bonds of sin to be broken so that all may know the hope that comes only in knowing our souls are safe in the hands of a loving God that is not willing that one of us should perish.
