"Hope In God"

"Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope in God: for I shall yet praise Him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God." (Psalms 43:5) When we take our eyes off of the Lord, then our situations and our circumstances can get quite overwhelming. As pilgrims in a land that we are called out of, there sure is a whole lot of stuff that we can let bring us down; especially if we are counting that stuff as our own. I totally understand where my hope is to be placed, and no one needs to remind me about the faith I need to have in Jesus, yet there are those days when I just wake up feeling like all of the air has been let out of my balloon, and I am worthless, and not worthy to even speak to God. And then, O my, I have some really bad days; days when I might feel within my heart that God has let my wife be stricken because of my stubbornness; as if God is punishing her because of some unrepentant sin in my heart. Some of the things that we put ourselves through, because we focus too hard on the circumstance, instead of putting our focus on Jesus Christ. I heard a message yesterday about one pastor that said he keeps a Roman nail in his office, and when he starts thinking that he has it bad, he presses the nail against his wrist, and is reminded that things aren't all that bad. We are really only here for a very short time, compared to the eternity that awaits us, so why do we let things bring us down? Why do we let that which is going to pass away take the joy of everlasting life from us? And some times it is so easy, not like the joy needs to be pried from our lives, we just give it up, as if those things matter more, if not for that moment. I believe that we are here for a purpose, and that purpose is to give God the glory through each and every trial that we face; no matter how hard that trial might appear, if it is something impossible, then it is something that we should feel blessed to be part of, because the Lord will be glorified in the midst of it. You think that you have it bad? Are you going to be burned at the stake? or are you going to be pulled apart, limb by limb? Is what you are going through as bad as what Jesus suffered to free you from your sins, and to give you eternal life? I think we tend to put a little too much focus on things, that really in the long run, really do not matter; nor should they rob us of the joy we have in Christ... "What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us." (Romans 8:31-34))