The Burning Question:
It’s National Stress Awareness Day. What is your go-to strategy for when you are stressed out?
Morning Devotional:
I don’t know what it was, but there were so many people the other day who seemed to be in a “mood.”
One was grumpy and another was crabby. A third described their condition as simply “meh” and the fourth self-identified as being a teeny bit irritable. By mid-afternoon, I was right there with them, trying to fight my way out of a good old-fashioned case of discouragement.
It’s amazing just how quickly a sour mood can rise up and how contagious it can be, too. Those kinds of emotions spread like wildfire but once they land on you, they can be pretty hard to shake. I personally have to make a deliberate effort to rid myself of those kinds of emotions when they come. What is my go-to in those times? I look to a formula in God’s word.
Psalm 42 finds the psalmist in a mood of sorts. He asks the question more than once, “Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me?” He is seeking out the reasons for his distress, something we should do as well. Then he makes an action plan: “Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.” The word hope is a noun and indicates that feeling of wanting something to happen and believing it could happen. That’s something we, like the psalmist, can build ourselves up to have again. Sometimes it takes a pep talk to turn our mood around. No matter what is happening or what you may be feeling, find a way to hope in Him again.
– Beth
Bible Quiz:
Question: In what book of the Bible is Canaan first described as a land flowing with milk and honey?
Storytime: I bought ALL the Deodorant.