Grace Chasers
  • Home
    • Contact Us >
      • Recommended
  • Faith
    • Church Attendance: What's In It For Me?
    • Say Something I'm Giving Up on You (or why I'd love to join a church)
    • This is Home
    • For The Ragamuffins
    • The Indictment
    • The Journey Home
    • Turn Aside
    • Riding Out The Storm
    • Where You Find Yourself
    • Where Was God?
    • Healed and Held
    • Out of Alignment
    • What if I Were a Muslim?
    • Taking off the Mask
    • The Rescue
    • Uncertainty
    • Grace, Only Grace
    • Identity Crisis
    • Centered
    • The Why Questions
    • When God Doesn't Heal
    • Eternity in Our Hearts
    • A Plead For Unity
    • One of Them Days
    • Abba, Father
    • Fresh Eyes
    • One Thing More
    • Every Word Matters
    • Dis Connect
    • Satellites
    • Living For The Mission
    • Twelve
    • Seeking God's Will in Everyday Decisions
    • Unchanged
    • Uninvited
    • A New Commandment
    • Sunday Mornings
    • Hope
    • The Great Invitation
    • (Ir)Relevant
    • What's My Motivation?
    • I Don't Want To Get Over You
    • His Heartbeat
    • Lay it Down
    • We Shine Like Stars
    • Breaking Through
    • Trust Issues
    • Stuck in Numbers
    • Out of Our Control
    • Say So
    • Re: Focus
    • Getting Past- The Heart of the Matter
    • Face Down
    • The Business of Love
    • Surrendering Our Rights
    • Grace Does
    • The One Conversation
  • Seasons of Life
    • Miss You
    • Beginnings
    • A New Beginning
    • Four Seasons
    • Give Thanks
    • A Dream of Spring
    • Prone To Wonder
    • Splinters
    • Free Refills
    • Silent Night?
    • Early Christmas
    • Mary's Song
    • Christmas Past
    • A Dream From His Father
    • Proof of Love
    • The Close of Summer
    • Fall Awakenings
    • Memorial Day- Remembering the Lord's Past Goodness
    • God Shed HIs Grace on Thee
    • The End is Only The Beginning
    • The Sacred Journey
    • Air
    • The Longing
    • A Thousand Words
    • Faith Like A Child
  • Stories and Such
    • Doubt!
    • Along The Way
    • The Tree That Calls My Name
    • Praise Hymn
    • A Good Life
    • A Story for Those Forgiven
    • Something to Celebrate
    • A Lifetime of Love
    • All That You Can't Leave Behind
    • Coffee and Jesus
    • Tiny Hands and Baby Powder
    • The Busted Play
    • The Hill
    • The Old Country Church
    • Noah and a Better Way
    • Dawn Breaking
    • The Power of a Moment
    • Zu Zu's Petals
    • Thanks Be To God
    • The Search Is Over
    • An Interview with Jon Akin
    • Pursued By Grace
    • The Flood
    • Dog Days
    • Grace Land
    • Broken Inside
    • Where I've Been
    • Waving Our Flags
    • My Father's Hands
    • Rediscovering Narnia
    • Solitude
    • A Place Called Tennessee
    • A Tale of Reconciliation
    • Pocketful of Treasure
    • On Paris, ISIS and the Ground Swell of Hate
    • A Midnight Prayer
    • A "Least of These" Tale
    • Right to Live, Right to Die
    • The Stairway
  • Lessons
    • Sediment
    • The Lights From Home
    • And Grace Will Lead Us Home
    • How He Loves
    • Proof of Life
    • Which Jesus Did You Get?
    • Grumpypants
    • We Are Held
    • Fight the Fear
    • Love is Messy
    • The Difference He Makes
    • No, I mean He really Loves you
    • Left Unsaid
    • Hands of an Angry God
    • Milk
    • The Transaction
    • Teach Your Children Well
    • Come To The Table
    • The Lost Art of Conversation
    • Embracing Brokenness
    • The Last Stand
    • Sinners and Psalms
  • In The Word
    • Counting Joys
    • The God Who Sees Me
    • A Bride's Worth
    • The Dilemma
    • One Race, One Blood
    • Who is My Neighbor?
    • Exceeding Glory
    • Just A Glimpse
    • The Battle
    • White As Snow
    • The Demonstration
    • And Then The End Will Come
    • A Friend Like That

One of Them Days

5/18/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
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!
Psalm 42:5 NLT

Melancholy. The Blues. The Doldrums. Whatever you want to call it, I had it. I racked my brain trying to figure out what was causing this condition within me. Was I sad? No. Had anything happened to cause me to feel the way that I was feeling? No. What then was causing this peculiar mood?

Usually, when we are downcast we can easily find the source of it. But not that day. Checking the pulse for the initiator of this feeling, this thing, this funk cloud that I was under. As a slide show of reasons made their way through my head, each one was discounted and quickly set aside. For some unknown and unapparent reason, I had IT and IT had me. Maybe it was a combination of things, maybe it was nothing in particular at all. Like waking up with an uninvited headache or some other body part aching and sore, it was there and just couldn’t be shaken right away.

In those moments when we are playing Sherlock Holmes to our moods and thoughts, the answers may not always come easily. Sometimes, we are just down. Sometimes we just want to hear the Blues. As God’s loved and created children, we are full of emotions. He designed us with them for a reason. But they are also indicators, signals if you will, that warn us when something is amiss. When we are in tune with them, they are of tremendous help to us. We can readily diagnose and discern what they are and what they mean. This day, this was not going to be the outcome.

In Psalm 42, the authors come to a conclusion that, at first glance, can be as strange as the feelings that hold us hostage at times. Depending on where you start, will determine where you end up with your self-diagnosis. But the authors here were already speaking about how much they longed for God, then they took the turn onto Discouragement Lane and were heading down to Downcast City. They quickly made a U-turn though and came to the conclusion that their only Hope was to refocus onto the God who Loved and Cared for them. They remembered the Lord’s past Goodness to them. They chose to praise Him. It seems like it would be best to take our cue from them.

I hear the tumult of the raging seas as your waves and surging tides sweep over me. But each day the Lord pours his unfailing love upon me, and through each night I sing his songs, praying to God who gives me life.
Psalm 42: 7-8 NLT

As we begin to focus and give praise and glory to our Creator, our minds shift from whatever it is that is causing our gloomy thoughts. When we shift the attention off of what we are feeling, or thinking and concentrate on The God of All Comfort who Loves us with an Unfailing and Unwavering Love, we our righting the ship and heading back towards calmer waters. The Best Place to be at all times, but especially these times, is in the midst of Worship to the One who Cares! So when we are having one of them days, we can make the effort to bring everything to Him and His Peace and Love will guard our hearts and minds.



Submit
0 Comments

    Archives

    May 2015

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.