Gods Therapy For Our Trepidation

Gods Therapy for Our Trepidation

Hope is an endangered species. We are more troubled than we’ve been in nearly fifty years. Happiness is down. Loneliness is up. And optimism has taken a right hook to the chin. Research from the National Institute of Mental Health is showing an epidemic of mental health problems among eighteen- to twenty-four-year-olds in the United States.

You can relate. Your heart has been broken, your dreams have been shattered, your body has battled disease. And maybe you’ve wondered if this life is worth living. God’s therapy for our trepidation reads like this: “For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever” (2 Corinthians 4:18). Face the problems of this life by focusing on the promises of the next.

Devotion by Max Lucado | The Almighty Jehovah | https://thealmightyJehovah.com

When We Are Giving

Oh, the things we do to give gifts to those we love. But we would do it all again. The fact is, we do it all again. Every Christmas, every birthday, and every so often we find ourselves in foreign territory. Grownups are in toy stores, wives are in the hunting department, and husbands are in the purse department.

And we do the most unusual things. We assemble bicycles at midnight. We hide new tires with mag wheels under the stairs. One fellow I heard about rented a movie theater so he and his wife could see their wedding pictures on their anniversary.

And we’d do it all again. Having pressed the grapes of service, we drink life’s sweetest wine—the wine of giving. We are at our best when we are giving. In fact, we are most like God when we are giving.

Out of the Mess

In the mystery of Christmas, we find its majesty. The mystery of how God became flesh, why he chose to come, and how much he must love his people. Christmas is best pondered, not with logic, but with imagination.

The first Christmas was messy. Messy with crowded inns, traveling families, and barnyard animals sniffing at baby Jesus. Messy with questions: How did Mary become pregnant? What is Joseph supposed to tell his friends? Why is Herod hell-bent on killing babies? The first Christmas was messy. No midwife for Mary, no bed for Jesus, no explanation to give the scruffy shepherds.

Is this one messy for you? Christmas can be messy. But just as with Bethlehem, good came out of the mess. May good come out of yours.