Changing Our Day By Changing Our Thinking

I stumbled across something I’d written some time ago and it encouraged me again and I thought it might do the same for you. 

Jeremiah was a guy who walked with God, heard God’s voice, gave God’s message to people even though he experienced a lot of abuse and suffering along the way.  Some days that make it tough for Jeremiah to face the day and on one occasion he said this: 

I remember how I suffered and wondered. I remember how bitter my life was. I remember it very well. My spirit is very sad deep inside me.Lamentations 3:19 - 20

Even though Jeremiah was having an awful time, that wasn’t the end of the story because in just the next verses we have these words that have brought hope and comfort to so many for centuries.

But then I think about this, and I have hope: we are still alive because the Lord‘s faithful love never ends every morning as he shows it in new ways! You are so very true and loyal! I say to myself, “The Lord is my God, and I trust him.” The Lord is good to those who wait for him. He is good to those who look for him. It is good to wait quietly for the Lord to save them. Lamentations 3:21 to 26

What a beautiful affirmation of healing and blessing not only for Jeremiah but for all of us who are willing to say the same thing.  Maybe you’re like I often was in the past – I heard those words but I just didn’t have the faith and hope to really believe they would make a difference or that God would act as those words said in my life on that particularly low day.  I was wrong.

God could and did turn things around for me and decades later I have so many stories of God’s faithful love expressed in my life that you’d tire of my talking if I tried to tell them all to you.

Heavenly Father, we’re grateful that you promised to be with us through all of life that we face, both the good and the troubling.  We need our minds to be filled with this truth so we can respond accordingly to whatever circumstances arise. 

We thank you for the presence and the guidance of your Holy Spirit who is more than willing to show us how to walk one step at a time through our day so we can live above the powerful waves of sadness, depression, and despair that threaten us.  Help us Lord to allow You to comfort and heal our hearts, lift and change our thoughts, and shape our perspective with Your truth and Your power. Amen

So today, whatever difficulty we face, let’s remember that the God who turns things around is with us.  Let’s change our day by changing our thinking and trusting the Lord who is on our side.