Saturday, July 5, 2008

No Hope Left

by Donna L. Watkins
Originally Published in A Healing Moment


It's not hard to be depressed and angry and without hope that God will do anything. As much free will as we love to express, we sure don't appreciate having it when it comes to healing, daily troubles, and our emotional issues in life.

View Enlarged Image
Passionflower Butterfly & Pink Cattleheart Butterfly
San Jose, Costa Rica
At times when all is falling down around us, we want the Damascus experience. Where God just arrests Paul and turns him around to a whole new life. We want God to just take care of it for us, when generally we've had little experience of letting Him take care of much in our lives as we busily go about our daily events.

When times are low, we sure do hear those self-pity spirits talking to us. All that self-pity just deepens the rut we're already trudging through. We may have started out knee-deep in trouble, but self-pity takes us up to our neck in misery, despair, grief and depression. At this point, the reality is that we ourselves are the only ones that will get us out and back on a path of joy, peace and contentment.

Magic, mystical, miraculous conversions are not a daily occurrence. I think the road to Damascus has been closed down for repairs. We may think it would make life easier for God to change us so quickly -- to have a grand conversion like Paul, but would we want the rest of Paul's life? He was a man of great faith and power, but look at the trials he had to endure. The devil never stopped trying to shut him up.

Many of us were raised, and have been led to think, that life should be free of trouble, with happiness on trees for the picking ... but the Bible doesn't tell us that. The natural world around us doesn't show us that , but as long as we whine and cry about not having "storybook happiness" we keep the devil winning in our lives.

It doesn't matter what our past looks like. Where we have come from in our family generations ... or what we have left behind us in the life we have lived before or even after becoming a Christian, doesn't matter for today. Today gives its own opportunities and just as the sun rises every morning, we have the power to let Christ arise in us and stand up to the devil.

We can choose to believe the Word. We can choose to know that God has the best for us today and every day because of His promise to turn all bad into good if we love Him (Ro.8:28).  We can change the generations after us and we can make our own life joyful in the process. I spent much of my early life as a Christian no better off than I was before accepting Christ. We choose salvation and we choose joy and peace by our Faith in Him.

Pentecost gave us the power of Christ within us by the Holy Spirit. Renewing our minds, while we clean out the trash we've believed and spent years thinking about, is the only way to walk through this world without misery. Living in the other realm of choice is only slow suicide.

Don't let self-pity put you neck deep in the mire and muck that Christ died to release you from. Take the power you already have and use it. Find a verse or two and hang on them. Don't try to remember 10 or 50 of them. Even verses all around the house on cards and notepaper can be overwhelming and confusing. Just grab hold of one or two that you can believe, memorize and build Faith with and begin now to tear down the strongholds that the devil has set up in your mind.

Don't let the Enemy tell you there is no hope left! You have the power to change who you are and he knows it. Take your position over him and renew your thoughts and do not allow him access any longer.

Choose ye this day whom you will serve.

Related Articles

How Thoughts Create Our Lives
Detoxing Your Thoughts to Renew Your Mind 
Our Thinking Can Change Our DNA


Copyright and Reprint Information
All photos remain the property of Donna L. Watkins and may not be republished without written permission. You may forward or use this copyrighted article on a website if you include the following credit and an active link back to this site:
© 2000-2008 Donna L. Watkins - This article was reprinted with permission. Visit the author's website, TheNatureInUs.com for more articles and free email subscription.
Link URL: http://www.TheNatureInUs.com

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

God's timing is amazing--thanks for the blessing of this article.

Share This Post