Monday, April 2, 2007

How to avoid a nervous breakdown

Isaiah 26:3-4
Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.
Trust ye in the Lord forever: for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.

Isaiah 25: 1 & 4
O Lord thou are my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things; thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.
Isa 25:4
4 For thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.
When you think of all the people in the Bible who went through terrible things the thing that stands out in my opinion is how they all realized that without God in their lives they were nothing. With God in their lives they were able to face and conqueror the most terrible situations.
Look at Abraham for a moment when he was commanded by God to take Isaac up to the mountain God would tell him of and to offer him as a burnt offering he did it. Can you picture in your mind your reaction if God told you to take your only child and offer him/her at a burnt offering before the Lord? Abraham did not question God he was obedient and for that God rewarded him and spared Isaac. Abraham could have played all kinds of mind games. He could have lain awake and argued with God. He could have gotten up the next morning out of sorts and mad at the whole world. Abraham chose not to do that and just did what God told him to do. What faith! What obedience! God wants us to be so centered on him that nothing else matters. He is trying to show us through his word and the example of men and women in the Bible that He will take care of us and give us perfect peace if we will completely trust in Him.
I believe if we keep our minds stayed on God then we will be able to sing his praises and glorify him regardless of what we are going through.
I know I haven’t been thrown into a fiery furnace, a lion’s den, jail or beaten just for believing in Him. I sometimes wonder what we would really do and how our lives would be changed if we had to go through some of the things the faithful men and women in the Bible went through. We think we have it rough trying to go to church a couple of times a week. We have our cars that are warm in the winter and cool in the summer, warm homes, food that we don’t have to plant, cultivate and harvest, most of the time we just pop it into the microwave or eat out. Think for a moment if you will of what it would have been like to walk everywhere you needed to go, or if you were fortunate have a horse or donkey to ride. Having to sleep out in the open wherever you went and to scrounge for what food you would get.
God has indeed given us an abundant life. The more we are content with our life and the more we praise our King the greater peace we will have. Peace of heart, peace of soul and peace of mind what a way to avoid a nervous breakdown.

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