Be Encouraged 3

         What do you do when those feelings of hopelessness, worthlessness, guilt, dejection and paralyzing fear come upon you like a tidal wave? Each day you wake up and see you have to go through the motions of life again, it kills your enthusiasm to get out of bed. You cry out but no one hears and it’s as if no one sees and no one cares. You pretend and go through the motions of living, but inside you are screaming to get out of the trap of hopelessness and worthlessness. To make matters worse, you have a family (member), colleague or a boss that constantly tells you, you are worthless and cannot amount to anything good especially the way the trajectory of your life is going. It looks like there is no one that understands you or is willing to help. Sadly, you see nothing good in yourself and you can’t seem to see anything good in the present or the future. No matter the accolades you receive or acquire, all you can think of is how to end it all! Beloved, the fact that you feel that way does not mean the feeling is right or legitimate. When you were created, the Lord announced you are ‘GOOD’, because you were made in His image and likeness: “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. Evening came and then morning: the sixth day” (Genesis 1:31).  He didn’t consult anyone before making you, or placing you upon the face of the earth. He decided to do all that because he had a plan in mind. 

       Beloved, the plan has not changed no matter what your heart is telling you right now. God is greater than your heart: “You know when I sit down and when I stand up; You understand my thoughts from far away. You observe my travels and my rest; You are aware of all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue, You know all about it, Lord” (Psalm 139:2-4). When a man does not see himself the way God sees him, there will be a problem in him achieving the set purpose for his life. The enemy understands this, and he does everything he can through his agents to change the picture God had placed in your heart. Beloved, that picture is a message. If the enemy is able to change the message of your life, he changes your wellbeing and your story. The reason you are feeling the way you do is because the picture/message of your life has been tampered with. This is the reason you feel it’s better to end it, because the picture you now have in your heart is flawed, it is not the original picture God had placed in your heart. The same strategy was used for Joseph. His brothers and Portiphar’s wife became instruments in the hands of the devil to try and change the picture/message that Joseph carried on the inside. If they had succeeded, the purpose of Joseph as a forerunner and a preserver of lives would not have been realized: “He had sent a man ahead of them – Joseph, who was sold as a slave. They hurt his feet with shackles; his neck was put in an iron collar. Until the time his prediction came true, the word of the Lord tested him” (Psalm 105:17-19). 

       Beloved, understand that what you receive or experience is a function of the image you hold of yourself. This affects your behavior, who you are and who you become, because as a man thinks, so he is (Proverbs 23:7a).  Joseph went through all that he went through because he saw a picture, and held on tightly to it no matter what the enemy threw at him. The Bible tells us that when God created man in His own image and likeness, He gave man authority and dominion over everything (Genesis 1:26-28). This means, you have authority over everything: powers, principalities and rulers of this dark world, including the feelings of worthlessness, hopelessness, guilt, helplessness, sadness and depression. Beloved, you have authority over them and not the other way round! Depression is something so many do not fully understand; the feeling of worthlessness, sadness, helplessness and sometimes guilt can often be unexplained and overwhelming. Thus, making it really difficult to talk about, but the Lord knows all these and understands: “For it was You who created my inward parts; You knit me together in my mother’s womb…Your eyes saw me when I was formless; all my days were written in Your book and planned before a single one of them began” (Psalm 139: 13 and 16). Oh wow, what a GOD we serve! “For I know the plans I have for you – this is the Lord’s declaration – plans for your welfare, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. You will call to Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you – the Lord’s declaration –…” (Jeremiah 29:11-14a). 

       Take a step of faith today beloved. Accept His love as you walk out of the feelings of worthlessness, hopelessness, guilt and sadness into His arms of love, joy and pleasures for evermore, in Jesus Christ name. Take this step today and you will be blessed you did: “Now to Him who is able to protect you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of His glory, blameless and with great joy, to the only God our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power and authority before all time, now and forever” (Jude 24). God bless you!