Morning, February 24
<< Morning, February 24 >>
Why am I discouraged?
        Why is my heart so sad?
I will put my hope in God!
        I will praise him again--
my Savior and my God!
Now I am deeply discouraged,
        but I will remember you--
even from distant Mount Hermon, the source of the Jordan,
        from the land of Mount Mizar.
Insight
Depression is one of the most common emotional ailments. One antidote for depression is to meditate on the record of God's goodness to his people. This will take your mind off the present situation and give hope that it will improve. It will focus your thoughts on God's ability to help you rather than on your inability to help yourself.
Challenge
When you feel depressed, take advantage of this psalm's antidepressant. Read the Bible's accounts of God's goodness, and meditate on them.
Ezekiel 34:26  I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing.

Here is sovereign mercy--"I will give them the shower in its season." Is it not sovereign, divine mercy?--for who can say, "I will give them showers," except God? There is only one voice which can speak to the clouds, and bid them beget the rain. Who sendeth down the rain upon the earth? Who scattereth the showers upon the green herb? Do not I, the Lord? So grace is the gift of God, and is not to be created by man. It is also needed grace. What would the ground do without showers? You may break the clods, you may sow your seeds, but what can you do without the rain? As absolutely needful is the divine blessing. In vain you labor, until God the plenteous shower bestows, and sends salvation down. Then, it is plenteous grace. "I will send them showers." It does not say, "I will send them drops," but "showers." So it is with grace. If God gives a blessing, he usually gives it in such a measure that there is not room enough to receive it. Plenteous grace! Ah! we want plenteous grace to keep us humble, to make us prayerful, to make us holy; plenteous grace to make us zealous, to preserve us through this life, and at last to land us in heaven. We cannot do without saturating showers of grace. Again, it is seasonable grace. "I will cause the shower to come down in his season." What is thy season this morning? Is it the season of drought? Then that is the season for showers. Is it a season of great heaviness and black clouds? Then that is the season for showers. "As thy days so shall thy strength be." And here is a varied blessing. "I will give thee showers of blessing." The word is in the plural. All kinds of blessings God will send. All God's blessings go together, like links in a golden chain. If he gives converting grace, he will also give comforting grace. He will send "showers of blessing." Look up today, O parched plant, and open thy leaves and flowers for a heavenly watering.


Ezekiel 36:37  'Thus says the Lord GOD, "This also I will let the house of Israel ask Me to do for them: I will increase their men like a flock.

James 4:2  You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask.

Matthew 7:7,8  "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. • "For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.

1 John 5:14,15  This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. • And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.

James 1:5  But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.

Psalm 81:10  "I, the LORD, am your God, Who brought you up from the land of Egypt; Open your mouth wide and I will fill it.

Luke 18:1  Now He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart,

Psalm 34:15,17  The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous And His ears are open to their cry. • The righteous cry, and the LORD hears And delivers them out of all their troubles.

John 16:26,27,24  "In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I will request of the Father on your behalf; • for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came forth from the Father. • "Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full.

New American Standard Bible Copyright ? 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. For Permission to Quote Information visit http://www.lockman.org.

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