“O my God, my soul is cast down within me.” So prayed the Psalmist unto the Lord! I’ve just quoted Psalm 42:6, from our King James Version.
The very idea!
Actually telling the Lord God Almighty that you are “down, despondent, depressed, at the end-of-your rope?”
Shocking!
Jonah the Prophet was that way one day, and he sure told the Lord about it! Well, maybe instead of being “cast down,” Jonah was simply red-hot angry! “But it (what God had done, sparing the Assyrians) displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry. And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, I pray thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country?” Quite frustrated with God, upset … and not hiding it either! (Jonah 4:1-2)
How about Elijah? “He arose, and went (ran) for his life, and came to Beersheba, which belongeth to Judah, and left his servant there. But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life.” Cast down, no doubt … maybe even suicidal! Yet he is telling God just how he feels! (From 1 Kings 19:3-4)
Jeremiah? Actually he was about to quit on God. “O LORD, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived: thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed: I am in derision daily, every one mocketh me.” Jeremiah 20:7, pretty “down!” Yet (again) letting God know exactly how he was feeling!
And in the New Testament, John the Baptist. He, abnormally discouraged, asked this question (through his followers because John was in prison at the time) … “Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?” The man who preached, upon seeing Jesus the first time …“Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” Now depressed, confused, hurting … and yet telling Jesus all about it!
All I am saying today, if that crowd of giants can be honest with the Lord … why can’t we?
Tell Him, folks!
Tell Him right now!
He understands!
Pray sincerely, openly … like the Psalm writer … “O my God, my soul is cast down within me.”
Yes, Jesus cares!
“Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.” Peter meant that, 1 Peter 5:7, he had practiced it as well!
— Dr. Mike Bagwell
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