Psalm 69:20 Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.
‘Stand up, stand up for Jesus. The trumpet calls obey. Till every foe is vanquished. And Christ is Lord indeed!’ Yes Friends, it’s Monday morning, another beautiful day in some part of the universe, but in our rat race society the start of another work week, one of hostilities. Remember to give thanks, ask for guidance and to dress in all your spiritual armour, for without it you don’t stand a chance against the evil enemy. He takes no prisoners, and shows no pity. And on that topic, here’s a quote for our edification. ‘Self-pity is our worst enemy, and if we yield to it, we can never do anything wise in this world.’ Those are supposedly words of Helen Keller, and she speaks the truth. Having others pity us is bad enough, but self-pity, when we’re both the giver and the ‘givee’ (smile) that only brings us to a rather low state of self-confidence and self-esteem, and only serves to bog us down in a mire of quick sand. And with each passing day that we wallow in it, our depression and self-loathing becomes worse. I know that it’s easy to ridicule self-pity, but Friends it happens to all and sundry; king, beggar and thief. The human spirit, our souls need a constant stream of positive affirmation from others to boost them. But when our inner being doesn’t get that rush of positive affirmation, or if we’re lambasted with negative action, whether fairly or unfairly, then it doesn’t take much to turn into ourselves and miserably bewail our misfortune. ‘Poor me. I’ve been misunderstood and treated so badly. No one cares about me.’ Then we let sadness and sorrow overwhelm us. Now all our claims might be true, but like anger and resentment, we can’t let self-pity thrive in our souls, for it only grows, hardens and turns to bitterness. In Psalm 69, Bruh David cries out with pleas of underserved suffering: ‘Because for thy sake I have borne reproach; shame hath covered my face. I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother’s children.’ (Ps.69:7-8) That was very fertile ground for self-pity. He also despairs: ‘They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head: they that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty: then I restored that which I took not away (did not steal).’ (Ps.69:4) Oh Friends, what great reasons to wallow in the funk of self-pity? Your enemies are plentiful and powerful, wrongfully accuse you, and though you returned what you didn’t take, they still want to eliminate you. And I doubt that any of us have been plagued by the many serious problems that befell Bruh David in his topsy-turvy life. But what was his attitude, what was his answer? Instead of turning inward to bemoan his misfortune, he turned outwardly and cried out to his Creator, his God. Right from the get go, he pleads: ‘Save me, O God, for the waters are come in unto my soul (quickly): I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me. I am weary of my crying: my throat is dried: mine eyes fail while I wait for my God.’ (Ps.69:1-3) Oh my people, all of us can identify with Bruh David’s plight at least once in our lives, where we’re so overwhelmed by misfortune that it just drives us crazy. But instead of letting it fester like a cancer within him, he turned to the God of his fathers, who’d seen him through many other rough and disastrous times. Even so should we my Friends. When problems drive us low, instead of bemoaning and bewailing our sorry plight with a ‘poor me one,’ attitude and sinking into a state of depression, we ought to cry out to our God, who’s promised to help us in and through all our calamities. This reminds me of a personal instance not too long ago, when an incident occurred that was not my fault, but unfortunately I ended up bearing the brunt of the blame and suffering the most reversal. Obviously I was sad, angry and disappointed, but fortunately realized in a short time that those negative sentiments would not help, but rather hurt and hinder my progress, so I did like Bruh David and prayed them down. It wasn’t easy, for the enemy always ramps up his attacks when you’re low down, but if you seriously set out on the right course of action, the Lord will eventually intervene and bring you through it. You might come out unscathed, or somewhat scathed, depending on whether His original purpose for allowing the misfortune was to teach you a valuable lesson. But you’ll certainly learn something from the situation. Hopefully I did. (smile) Anyway, in a few days I’d put the unfair situation behind me and moved on. As our Bit laments: ‘Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness (sickness): and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.’ Take solace Friends, others mightier than us also had problems in that respect. Even the mighty Lord, our God, suffered that fate, as He declared through Isaiah, talking about the day of vengeance: ‘I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me.’ (Is.63:3) The same thing happened to Job. When he complained of God’s seemingly unfair dealings with him, all his supposed friends reproved him. ‘Then Job answered and said, I have heard many such things: miserable comforters are ye all.’ (Job 16:1-2) Yes Friends, often it’s those closest to us who put us down the hardest and desert us when we’re in greatest need. And there’s no better example than Jesus after He explained to the disciples what was to happen and they claimed that they understood and believed. (John 16:25-30) But then Jesus said to them; ‘Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own (place), and shall leave me alone:’ (John 16:32) And so said so done, people. When the time came for him to be tried and crucified, none of His disciples were around, all disappeared for fear of being associated with Him and suffering some dreadful fate. But as He had also said to them: ‘and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me.’ (John 16:32) And that is the gospel truth of all gospel truths my people! We may be alone in terms of human companionship, but we’re never truly alone, for our heavenly Father is always with us wherever we go and whatever we’re going through. Please hold on to that tightly, because it’s possibly the most essential part of our faith. For some of Jesus’ last words to His disciples were: ‘lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.’ (Mat.28:20) Stand strong my brethren in the promise of Jesus! Much LOVE!…to any who believes…Jesus will NEVER leave…
‘Stand up, stand up for Jesus. The trumpet calls obey. Till every foe is vanquished. And Christ is Lord indeed!’ Yes Friends, it’s Monday morning, another beautiful day in some part of the universe, but in our rat race society the start of another work week, one of hostilities. Remember to give thanks, ask for guidance and to dress in all your spiritual armour, for without it you don’t stand a chance against the evil enemy. He takes no prisoners, and shows no pity. And on that topic, here’s a quote for our edification. ‘Self-pity is our worst enemy, and if we yield to it, we can never do anything wise in this world.’ Those are supposedly words of Helen Keller, and she speaks the truth. Having others pity us is bad enough, but self-pity, when we’re both the giver and the ‘givee’ (smile) that only brings us to a rather low state of self-confidence and self-esteem, and only serves to bog us down in a mire of quick sand. And with each passing day that we wallow in it, our depression and self-loathing becomes worse. I know that it’s easy to ridicule self-pity, but Friends it happens to all and sundry; king, beggar and thief. The human spirit, our souls need a constant stream of positive affirmation from others to boost them. But when our inner being doesn’t get that rush of positive affirmation, or if we’re lambasted with negative action, whether fairly or unfairly, then it doesn’t take much to turn into ourselves and miserably bewail our misfortune. ‘Poor me. I’ve been misunderstood and treated so badly. No one cares about me.’ Then we let sadness and sorrow overwhelm us. Now all our claims might be true, but like anger and resentment, we can’t let self-pity thrive in our souls, for it only grows, hardens and turns to bitterness. In Psalm 69, Bruh David cries out with pleas of underserved suffering: ‘Because for thy sake I have borne reproach; shame hath covered my face. I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother’s children.’ (Ps.69:7-8) That was very fertile ground for self-pity. He also despairs: ‘They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head: they that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty: then I restored that which I took not away (did not steal).’ (Ps.69:4) Oh Friends, what great reasons to wallow in the funk of self-pity? Your enemies are plentiful and powerful, wrongfully accuse you, and though you returned what you didn’t take, they still want to eliminate you. And I doubt that any of us have been plagued by the many serious problems that befell Bruh David in his topsy-turvy life. But what was his attitude, what was his answer? Instead of turning inward to bemoan his misfortune, he turned outwardly and cried out to his Creator, his God. Right from the get go, he pleads: ‘Save me, O God, for the waters are come in unto my soul (quickly): I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me. I am weary of my crying: my throat is dried: mine eyes fail while I wait for my God.’ (Ps.69:1-3) Oh my people, all of us can identify with Bruh David’s plight at least once in our lives, where we’re so overwhelmed by misfortune that it just drives us crazy. But instead of letting it fester like a cancer within him, he turned to the God of his fathers, who’d seen him through many other rough and disastrous times. Even so should we my Friends. When problems drive us low, instead of bemoaning and bewailing our sorry plight with a ‘poor me one,’ attitude and sinking into a state of depression, we ought to cry out to our God, who’s promised to help us in and through all our calamities. This reminds me of a personal instance not too long ago, when an incident occurred that was not my fault, but unfortunately I ended up bearing the brunt of the blame and suffering the most reversal. Obviously I was sad, angry and disappointed, but fortunately realized in a short time that those negative sentiments would not help, but rather hurt and hinder my progress, so I did like Bruh David and prayed them down. It wasn’t easy, for the enemy always ramps up his attacks when you’re low down, but if you seriously set out on the right course of action, the Lord will eventually intervene and bring you through it. You might come out unscathed, or somewhat scathed, depending on whether His original purpose for allowing the misfortune was to teach you a valuable lesson. But you’ll certainly learn something from the situation. Hopefully I did. (smile) Anyway, in a few days I’d put the unfair situation behind me and moved on. As our Bit laments: ‘Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness (sickness): and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.’ Take solace Friends, others mightier than us also had problems in that respect. Even the mighty Lord, our God, suffered that fate, as He declared through Isaiah, talking about the day of vengeance: ‘I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me.’ (Is.63:3) The same thing happened to Job. When he complained of God’s seemingly unfair dealings with him, all his supposed friends reproved him. ‘Then Job answered and said, I have heard many such things: miserable comforters are ye all.’ (Job 16:1-2) Yes Friends, often it’s those closest to us who put us down the hardest and desert us when we’re in greatest need. And there’s no better example than Jesus after He explained to the disciples what was to happen and they claimed that they understood and believed. (John 16:25-30) But then Jesus said to them; ‘Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own (place), and shall leave me alone:’ (John 16:32) And so said so done, people. When the time came for him to be tried and crucified, none of His disciples were around, all disappeared for fear of being associated with Him and suffering some dreadful fate. But as He had also said to them: ‘and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me.’ (John 16:32) And that is the gospel truth of all gospel truths my people! We may be alone in terms of human companionship, but we’re never truly alone, for our heavenly Father is always with us wherever we go and whatever we’re going through. Please hold on to that tightly, because it’s possibly the most essential part of our faith. For some of Jesus’ last words to His disciples were: ‘lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.’ (Mat.28:20) Stand strong my brethren in the promise of Jesus! Much LOVE!…to any who believes…Jesus will NEVER leave…
SCRIP-BITS 