I love Psalm 88, however, there’s a twist to it. All the other psalms end with joy even though they start off with sorrow. This one reflects pain throughout:
Oh Lord, the God who saves me, day and night I cry out before you.
May my prayer come before you. Turn your ear to my cry.
For my soul is full of trouble and my life draws near to the grave,
I am counted among those who go down to the pit.
I am like a man without strength,
I am set apart with dead like who lie in the grave whom you remember no more who are cut off from your care.
In fact, the writer of this Psalm shows the symptoms of clinical depression. Why would God put that in the Bible? I think God knows there at times this is how we feel. Sometimes life overwhelms us.
Today I have Anita Brooks with me, and she has written Getting Through What You Can’t Get Over. She will share how God can restore after major depression:
You can overcome abuse, and we are going to talk about how that’s done.
The mind is incredible. God designed us so we can access our memories and relive events. As we do that the emotions wash over us again as if it was happening in that moment. In fact, that’s one reason Worry is bad for us because we imagine something bad happening and our bodies respond as if it did happen. All the negative chemicals start flowing through our bodies. Those bad chemicals can make us ill.
Ladies, If you’ve lived very long, you’ve been through heartrending stuff, you’ll have baggage. Stuff from the past that weighs you down and impacts your actions and even reactions. What can we do about that?
2 Cor. 10 5 says, “We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ,”
Today we are going to talk about how you can implement that verse and how Scripture can help you heal:
I have Becky Harling with me, and she wrote, Rewriting Your Emotional Script
2:25 Why pray Scripture? Isn’t that magical thinking?
3:12 How can God heal you with the Word?
4:00 How can we be ‘poor in spirit’?
5:30 We need God.
6:45 How is letting go different from being a victim
Cynthia Ruchti: Christmas and God’s Restoring Love
Psalm 51:12 Restore to me the joy of Thy salvation, And sustain me with a willing spirit.
We celebrate Christmas because God came to earth as a baby to die for our sins. That’s a pretty huge event, very worth celebrating.For many people, it’s a painful time. You may have sustained a loss during the year or miss someone who died years ago. We don’t often think about Christmas and restoration in the same sentence, but my guest, Cynthia Ruchti wrote a book, Restoring Christmas. What an interesting concept! I looked up the word restore and found it occurred about seventy times. (depending on your translation, that may vary.)
After giving the matter some thought, I agree with Cynthia. Jesus came to earth to be our redeemer. He came to pay the price for our sins so we can have restored fellowship with God. But what about all those other hurts we experience? Cynthia shares her heart on heartache during Christmas.
1:45 Share the basic story of the book
5:35 Did any event in your life prompt this story?
12:10 Talk about restoration for those hurting places.
19:50 Jesus is close to the broken-hearted. Share with people who may be there this year.
21:25 What about folks who are stumbling through Christmas with sadness or depression?
[tweetthis]I can’t unravel, I’m hemmed in hope[/tweetthis]
[tweetthis]Christmas is all about God’s love[/tweetthis]
