Coconut
Member
- Joined
- Feb 17, 2005
- Messages
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The Sign of Jonah: What to Do with Christian Despair
(you will want to read the entire message posted in the link below)
"If I despair of overcoming sin on my own, I may want to destroy myself to destroy the sin. Or perhaps I have a disease or mental illness that is so intrusive that it changes my behavior and personality, and I have to take medication to control it. Hating the disease, I may come to hate myself because I cannot see myself separate from the disease or the constant need to control its effects. Or perhaps I see in my past a record of failures so consistent that reason dictates that my future will include more of the same. I may become in my own mind not merely someone who has failed and may likely fail again, but a failure.
Yet our God understands that we are not our illnesses, we are not our failures, we are not our addictions or our sins. For instance, I am not my depression, and God has no problem making that distinction. God knows who I am, on or off my medication, because God is in touch with the spirit he created and sustains in me. And in this fallen existence, if I must struggle against my wayward flesh or against chemical imbalance or chemical dependency, if I must suffer with an ongoing desire to indulge self-destructive urges or idolatry of any kind, God does not reject me because of my struggle. Rather, God is with me in that struggle, for God loves what I am, who I am in him, quite apart from what I do or what my condition does to me. And God knows that God in me and I in him are greater than the thorn in my flesh."
The Sign of Jonah: What to Do with Christian Despair | News | Faith Streams - Faith Based Resources, Faith Based Videos, Faith Traditions, Faith-based News
(you will want to read the entire message posted in the link below)
"If I despair of overcoming sin on my own, I may want to destroy myself to destroy the sin. Or perhaps I have a disease or mental illness that is so intrusive that it changes my behavior and personality, and I have to take medication to control it. Hating the disease, I may come to hate myself because I cannot see myself separate from the disease or the constant need to control its effects. Or perhaps I see in my past a record of failures so consistent that reason dictates that my future will include more of the same. I may become in my own mind not merely someone who has failed and may likely fail again, but a failure.
Yet our God understands that we are not our illnesses, we are not our failures, we are not our addictions or our sins. For instance, I am not my depression, and God has no problem making that distinction. God knows who I am, on or off my medication, because God is in touch with the spirit he created and sustains in me. And in this fallen existence, if I must struggle against my wayward flesh or against chemical imbalance or chemical dependency, if I must suffer with an ongoing desire to indulge self-destructive urges or idolatry of any kind, God does not reject me because of my struggle. Rather, God is with me in that struggle, for God loves what I am, who I am in him, quite apart from what I do or what my condition does to me. And God knows that God in me and I in him are greater than the thorn in my flesh."
The Sign of Jonah: What to Do with Christian Despair | News | Faith Streams - Faith Based Resources, Faith Based Videos, Faith Traditions, Faith-based News
