If Discouraged or Anxious, Praise Your Exalted King – Purity 1652
Purity 1652 05/07/2025 Purity 1652 Audio Podcast
Purity 1652 on YouTube:
Good morning,
Today’s photo which, I am calling “Mountains in the Mist” comes to us from Fred Dimmick who shared this spectacular view on social media back on November 7th, 2024.
Well, it’s Wednesday and I share Fred’s photo as a visual reminder that we have once again arrived at another midweek summit, Happy Humpday, and to remind us to keep looking up because our help comes from the Lord and the only way out of the valley of the shadow of death or despair is to move on up to higher ground.
I know what its like to be in the valley of despair and my failure to achieve health goals doesn’t help me to stay out of those low places. I have been “up and down the mountain” in terms of my weight since December of 2023, which at 198.8 lbs. was the pinnacle of my success thus far. Today I weighed in at 221.6 which is actually down from where I was last week, so although I should be happy that the scale is going in the right direction, when I consider where I was and what I hope to achieve, 180lbs – and a “normal” BMI for my height, its very easy to get discouraged and anxious about whether or not I will ever be able to achieve what I hope to accomplish.
But I know that looking to the past and lamenting over what has been lost has limited value and just happens to be just what the spiritual forces of darkness would love for us to do.
Some of the things I have learned through years of walking with the Lord on this path of Christian Discipleship is that we don’t live in the past, we can’t go back and fix our mistakes, and that the only way to resolve our problems is to move forward from where we are. And because I have had periods in my life where hope of success seemed to be a distant dream more than a goal, I have learned to continually come into the Lord’s presence to receive His comfort and strength and one of the best ways to get out of discouragement is to praise the Lord.
The Turning Point with David Jeremiah devotion today addresses this topic so I am sharing it on the blog today to share the Lord’s prescription for discouragement and anxiety: praise. Dr. David Jeremiah writes:
“Your Exalted King
Oh, sing to the Lord a new song! – Psalm 96:1
Five psalms—from Psalm 96 to Psalm 100—explicitly affirm God’s rule over all the earth. Allen Ross, in his commentary on Psalms, calls Psalm 96: “The Exalted King.” We’re to sing a new song to Him (verse 1) and “declare His glory among the nations” (verse 3). Why? “For the Lord is great and greatly to be praised” (verse 4). He “made the heavens” (verse 5), so we should give Him glory (verse 7), bring Him an offering (verse 8), and worship Him “in the beauty of [His] holiness” (verse 9).
The joy of worshiping Him is not our privilege alone. The heavens, the earth, the seas, fields, and trees rejoice too (verses 11-12). We praise Him for He is coming to judge the world with righteousness and truth (verse 13).
The difficulties and stresses of life can discourage our souls. But God’s Word brings joy to our hearts often through studying the book of Psalms. If you’re discouraged or anxious today, take time to read Psalm 96 and praise God for who He is.” – David Jeremiah
Because the majestic Lord of creation comes to judge and rule the world, all people should worship Him in fear and praise Him in holy array for His great salvation.
Allen Ross
Amen. One of the world’s remedies for discouragement and anxiety is to “sing the blues”.
So, it may seem totally counterintuitive to sing praises to the Lord in hard times. Our discouraged or anxious moods make the idea of singing praises to God completely absurd and that’s just what the enemy of our souls would want us to think. Satan and his demons want us to stay in negative states of mind and they want us to stay there because if we are angry, depressed, anxious, or afraid, we are more susceptible to sin and less likely to experience God’s peace and to do the good works that God has prepared us to do.
So how do we fight back when the negative circumstances of our lives drive our emotional life to anxiety or despair? We do the opposite of what the world would have us do. Instead of singing the blues and seeking the comforts of this world, we should sing praises to God and seek the comfort of Him alone.
The psalms mentioned declare that God is in control and when we praise Him, we are declaring that truth and our trust that God is with us, will help us, and will stay with us through all our trials.
So, when trials, discouragement, or anxiety come, we remember the goodness of God and we join with His creation, for even the rocks cry out, and sing praises to Him and we wait and see how the Lord opens our eyes to His perspective and fills our hearts with joy.
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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 verse comes 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. (The Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling By John G. Kruis on Amazon )
This morning’s meditation verses come from the section on Marriage, Husband/Wife Relationships.
Ephesians 5:22–24 (NKJV) Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.
Today’s verses are the first of three passages of scripture that fall under the twelfth point of our counseling reference guide resource section on Marriage, Husband/Wife Relationships.
12. A wife is to submit to her husband, as the church submits to Christ.
Today’s Bible verses are poison to the ears of feminists everywhere, but they are the word of God and describe His plan for the most essential relationships apart from God that we can have: marriage.
I can understand how women would want to refuse this biblical mandate because frankly men historically have abused their position of power over women, resulting in sin and a stain on what God intended marriage to be.
Although the wife is to be subordinate to her husband’s spiritual leadership, it is with the assumption that she and her husband have also made themselves subordinate and accountable to God.
When God is at the center of the marriages, husbands would love their wives as Jesus loved the church and would thus lead with love and respect for his wife. With that in place, wives would find it easy to trust and respect their husbands, but the reality is that we are all imperfect servants of the Lord and if the husband isn’t the spiritual leader that he should be, the wife should be obedient to God and serve and encourage her husband to be more and more like Jesus.
Spouses are supposed to love and support one other through life and when both parties are honoring the Lor d by meeting the responsibilities of their respective roles, the fruit of the Spriit will grow and flourish in the marriage.
So, love one another and submit to one another in love as we all submit to God.
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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 “Day by Day Along the Way” By Jay E. Adams.
As always, I share this information for educational purposes and encourage you all to purchase Adams’ books for your own private study and to support the late author’s work. This resource is available online for less than $20 at many sites.
Day 151
Then He said to her, “Your sins have been forgiven you.” – Luke 7:48
She was not forgiven by her act of love toward Jesus; she performed this act because she loved the One Who had already forgiven her. The act indicated that it was true; it was evidence of the fact that forgiveness had come to her through faith in the Savior. He, Himself, pronounced the fact. You also were not saved by good works, but good works are the evidence of your salvation. Good works are not produced by human effort alone. The Spirit of God produces fruit in us by energizing and enabling us to know and do whatever it is that pleases God (cf. Philippians 2:13). Good works are not done by you alone, or by the Spirit alone. People err by asserting only one or the other cause. Both extremes are wrong. Good works are done by you through the wisdom and power of the Spirit. Ask God to give you His Holy Spirit so that you may be able to do those things that are in accord with His Word. When you ask, He will not give you a stone; He will freely give you the wisdom and power you need which can come only through Him.[1]
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[1] Jay E. Adams, Day by Day along the Way (Cordova, TN: Institute for Nouthetic Studies, 2020), 159.
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