Avoiding Those Post-Holiday Blues – I Can Do All Things # 5 – Purity 1360
Purity 1360 05/28/2024 Purity 1360 Podcast
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Good morning,
Today’s photo of water cascading down rock accented with bright green vegetation and a triangle of blue sky comes to us from Fred Dimmick who shared this upward view of Amicalola Falls yesterday on social media, sharing that:
Amicalola Falls, located in Dawsonville, at 729′ high, is the tallest waterfall in Georgia and the tallest cascading waterfall east of the Mississippi River. Its name is derived from the Cherokee language and means “tumbling waters.”
Well, it’s the Tuesday after Memorial Day weekend and it is my prayer that my friends enjoyed the long weekend and that your mood won’t go tumbling into a depression now that it’s back to the drawing board of another work week.
Any long weekend or vacation return to normal can be tough on our minds and emotions, as we go from rest and relaxation to work and responsibility but with Memorial Day you also have that weird mix of patriotism and grief added into the mix that can mess you up as past sacrifices are remembered and old wounds or existential questions of “why” can cause our celebrations to leave us feeling a little empty inside or even bitter. Our society doesn’t grieve very well in general and wrapping it up in the American flag or celebrating it with a parade and a barbeque seems a little bizarre it you think about it.
I myself was sequestered to a cabin in the woods for the weekend and by the time I emerged and got back to my countryside home, I basically missed all the outward expressions of Memorial Day but I still have to adjust from wilderness solitude, silence, and peace to a normal work day and could be subject to a mild depression but luckily I have learned not to follow my feelings and allow them to drive my emotions and let them be subject to changing circumstances of life.
As Christians, we are to be content in all things and be able to declare that in Christ we can do all things, and the key to being able to do that is being diligent in living by faith in the power of the Holy Spirit. And that brings us to our mini-series- I Can Do All Things – where we are sharing from Dr. Neil Anderson’s Who I Am in Christ: A Devotional to instruct us on exactly how we do that. We pick up where we left off on Saturday, from Chapter 36, where Anderson advises us to:
“Believe the Truth
The Christian, however, has a far greater potential in the power of believing the truth. Belief incorporates the mind but is not limited by it. A lot of biblical truth I believe, but I don’t fully understand. Belief, or faith, actually transcends the limitations of the mind and incorporates the world that is unseen but not unreal. With the infinite God of the universe as the object of Christian faith, what can stop the Christian if God wants something done? Couple that with the fact that it doesn’t take any more effort to believe that one can than to believe that one cannot. The issue is choosing truth and taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, instead of believing the enemy’s lies. Because you are God’s child, you can confront doubts and unbelief:
Why should I say I can’t when the Bible says, “I can do everything through him who gives me strength” (Phil. 4:13)?
Why should my needs not be met knowing that “My God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:19)?
Why should I fear when the Bible says, “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” (2 Tim. 1:7, NKJV)?
Why should I lack the faith to serve God knowing that “God has allotted to each a measure of faith” (Rom. 12:3, NASB)?
Why am I weak when the Bible says, “The Lord is the strength of my life” (Ps. 27:1, NKJV) and “People who know their God will display strength” (Dan. 11:32, NASB)?
Why should I allow Satan to have supremacy over my life, for “The one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world” (1 John 4:4)?
Why should I accept defeat when the Bible says, “Thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ” (2 Cor. 2:14)?
Why should I lack wisdom when I am “in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God” (1 Cor. 1:30) and “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously” (Jas. 1:5)?
Why should I be depressed when I can recall to my mind and therefore have hope, “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (Lam. 3:22, 23)?
Why should I worry when I can “Cast all [my] anxiety on him [Christ], because he cares for [me]” (1 Pet. 5:7)?
Why should I ever be in bondage, for “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Cor. 3:17) and “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free” (Gal. 5:1)?
Why should I feel condemned when the Bible says, “There is … no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1)?
Why should I ever feel alone when Jesus said, “I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matt. 28:20) and “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you” (Heb 13:5)?
Why should I feel accursed or the victim of bad luck when the Bible says, “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, … that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith” (Gal. 3:13, 14, NKJV)?
Why should I be discontented when I, like Paul, “Have learned to be content whatever the circumstances” (Phil. 4:11)?
Why should I feel worthless when “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21, NASB)?
Why should I ever have a persecution complex when the Bible says, “If God is for us, who can be against us” (Rom. 8:31)?
Why should I be confused since “God is not the author of confusion but of peace” (1 Cor. 14:33, NKJV)?
Why should I feel like a failure when “In all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us” (Rom. 8:37, NASB)?
Why should I let the world bother me when Jesus said, “In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33, NASB)?2[1]”
Yes! For those who didn’t recognize it, this list of 20 questions has been reworded elsewhere in Anderson’s work as the “20 Cans to Success” and it’s a wonderful biblical defense against a vast array of negative mind states. All we have to do to avoid going south emotionally is to remember who we are in Christ, know what God’s word says about us, and to apply it to our lives.
Regular practice of meditating on the 20 Cans of Success or the Who I Am in Christ list can do wonders for your emotional, mental, and spiritual life but, as Anderson points out, we have to believe that these things are true about us individually. It does us no good to believe that these things are true for some but not for me. These biblical truths are not magic words that will instantly change things but if we believe them in our hearts and minds, we can receive the benefits that flow from living in harmony with God, His Truth, and His Spirit.
So if the post-holiday blues start to creep in this morning, remember that you can recall to your mind and therefore have hope, “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (Lam. 3:22, 23).
God’s mercies are new every morning so remember them, count your blessings, and give thanks to God because life is still pretty good when we remember all that we have been given in Christ and through the way God has directed our lives. Focus on the positive, give thanks, and be kind.
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For those who want more evidence for Christianity than my simple encouragements provide, I offer apologist, Frank Turek’s website, https://crossexamined.org/ .
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Today’s Bible verses come to us from “The Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling” By John G. Kruis.
( While Bible verses on various topics of Counseling can be found with a quick Google search, we encourage you to purchase this resource to support the late author’s work. (https://www.amazon.com/Quick-Scripture-Reference-Counseling-Kruis-ebook/dp/B00CIUJZT2?ref_=ast_author_dp )
This morning’s meditation verses come from the section on Decision Making.
Romans 12:1-2 (NIV2011)
1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.
2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Today’s verses fall under the sixth and final point of our counseling reference guide resource’s section on Decision Making.
6. Make a full commitment.
Today’s verses urge us to commit our bodies and minds to the Lord so we can offer true worship to God and be transformed in the process. Over the weekend, I took time to read through a short study by John MacArthur called “Anxiety Free Living” and it was positively wonderful in how it broke down how the committed Chrisitan has no reason to worry or fear because of the abundant promises that we inherit as co-heirs with Christ but the “catch” to receiving such peace was that you had to know what God’s word says, and means, and that you had to surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and to do that we definitely need to follow Paul’s advice in today’s Bible verses. We have to give God our bodies, hearts, and minds as an act of love, trust, and worship. When we hold back parts of our lives from God, we will most likely suffer in those areas until we learn that God wants all of us and wants us to follow His ways for everything. When we surrender fully and live according to who we are in Christ., we experience the fruit of the Spirit – so let go and let God. Make a full commitment to Him and experience the anxiety free living that is meant for you to experience.
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As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.com where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk.
Today we continue sharing from “According to Your Word: Morning and Evening Through the New Testament” By Stephen F. Olford – A Collection of Devotional Journals: 1940-1941.
As always, I share this information for educational purposes and encourage you all to purchase Olford’s books for your own private study and to support his work. This resource is available online for less than $10 at many sites.
EVENING READING: ROMANS 3
“For what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief
make the faithfulness of God without effect? Certainly
not! Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar.”
– Romans 3:3-4
What a verse this is for the man who doubts the faithfulness of God! God is faithful. It is His intrinsic quality. God ceases to be God when He ceases to be faithful. Thus, Paul says in his second letter to Timothy, “If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself ” (2 Tim. 2:13).
Yes, He is the unchanging One. Jesus Christ, one with the Father, is the same yesterday and forever.
Lord, I claim Your faithfulness as the basis of my prayer.
Amen.[2]
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Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship
[1] Neil T. Anderson, Who I Am in Christ (Ventura, CA: Regal, 2001), 272–275.
[2] Stephen Olford and Heather Olford, According to Your Word: Morning and Evening Through the New Testament, A Collection of Devotional Journals 1940-1941 (Nashville, TN: B&H Books, 2008).
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