By: Steve Wilmot
Edgerton, Ohio
Eeyore, the donkey, is one of Winnie the Pooh’s best friends. He carries a dark cloud over him wherever he goes. He can’t seem to get out of his depressive funk. In fact, it appears he doesn’t even want to.
Once, Pooh and Eeyore met for a chat on a wintry afternoon. “It’s still snowing,” said Eeyore gloomily.
“So it is,” replied Pooh. “And freezing.” “It is?” “Yes,” said Eeyore. “However,” he said brightening up a little, “we haven’t had an earthquake lately.” Even his “positive” thoughts are negative.
It seems the sons of Korah were having an Eeyore-like day when they wrote Psalm 42. In verse five they cry out: “Why so downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior, and my God.”
Their souls were downcast and disturbed. This was gloom and despair deep down inside. You’ve been there. Everyone has. The nose-dive of your soul’s elevator. Depression you can’t climb out of.
Sighs escape from the depths of your heart. Despair stifles sleep at night. Fear keeps you on the sidelines. Nothing can shake it, it seems.
Notice the writer asks two questions to introduce the verse — both questions directed to his downcast soul.
BTW, when was the last time you talked to yourself and questioned your feelings?
Why do I feel this way? Are these feelings valid? Am I downcast because I’ve erased God from the equation? Am I feeling this way because I’m believing a lie?
You don’t have to believe everything you think, you know. Your mind lies to you all the time. Maybe you’ve never stopped to ask these questions. You didn’t know your thoughts influence your feelings, or that you can change your feelings by altering what you think.
If you’re downcast and gloomy, it’s because you’re dwelling on and believing downcast and gloomy thoughts. Change what you think about, and you’ll change your feelings.
The Psalmist tells his feelings to “put your hope in God.” Quit dwelling on how hopeless you think your situation is and concentrate on the hope and help God provides in every situation.
Replace unhealthy emotions with the hope God offers you. Without hope, you might as well pack your bags and give up. No hope collapses into “who cares?” But when you recall God is on the scene, there is always hope.
Hope is a confident expectation of better things to come. Note the Psalmist’s next words, “for I will yet praise Him again.”
He wasn’t out of the dumps yet, but he was confident he would praise God again because he knows with certainty and from experience that the One who promised good things ahead is faithful.
He announces God will pull him through because he realizes God will always do what he says he will do. How confident are you the hope of goodness will really be yours — even in the middle of your personal hell?
Dear reader, don’t let your feelings enslave you anymore. Inform your emotions. Tell them: “God is my hope. Hope is my anchor. I will set my mind on God — who He is and what He’s promised me.”
Martin Luther wrote: Feelings come and feelings go, and feelings are deceiving. My warrant is the Word of God; none else is worth believing.
You can change how you feel. You can wallow in your depressing circumstances. Or you can hope in your amazing, circumstance-changing, character-developing, promise-keeping, all-loving God.
The choice is yours.
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Steve Wilmot is a former Edgerton, Ohio area pastor who now seeks “to still bear fruit in old age” through writing. He is the author of seven books designed to assist believers to make steady progress on their spiritual journey.
