(C) Cheryl Howard 2008

When weighted by an oppressive gloom

That sits in your soul like a lump of doom

The sun’s arising it comes far too soon

You feel endlessly trapped in an internal room

 

You struggle to see beyond the now

Each second it stretches as if an hour

You face a future that tastes bitter and sour

Your mind like a sloth you have no power

 

It all feels pointless as if you’re just treading time

How can you look to tomorrow when your soul is blind?

So tired don’t care, the will to live you can’t find

It’s a maze of confusion in your dark, troubled mind

 

You’ve sunk somehow into a grey tomorrow

Joy has long gone, all that’s left is endless sorrow

Despair and hopelessness from you the world could borrow

Can’t see a way of escape from this interminable horror

 

Try to find reason to wake every morn

Can’t think anymore why you were even born

Long to slip away - feel tired, old and worn

Thought of ending life - but others left to mourn

 

You are trapped in a lie – don’t let it be!

Cry out to GOD your SAVIOR, to HIS loving side do flee

Go to the Cross, there HIS SON will set you forever free

It is HE gives true hope, the reason for life to you and me!

 

 

 

 

thought for the journey ….

 

Helpless, hopeless - dread and despair. Have these become your familiar companions? Are they there when you fall into a restless sleep? Awaiting you the moment your eyes begin to flicker in wakefulness? Do you dread the days ending - then dread a new one dawning?

JESUS said “I AM the LIGHT of the world, he who follows ME shall not walk in darkness.” (John 8:12). 

HE not only gives us hope when life seems hopeless - HE is our Hope, HE is The HOPE of the world!

There is nothing we can experience that our compassionate, merciful SAVIOR doesn’t understand - when we think we’ve reached the end of the road in our struggles, our suffering, our weary sorrows; that we can go no further, endure no more, that it is all too much - we need to take comfort in the knowledge that when JESUS hung upon The Cross in our stead HE went further, HE endured more. HE went to the end of every road of suffering and sorrow in our place, HE experienced the bottom of the deepest pit humanity could ever stumble into. And this HE did in HIS perfect innocence, justice and sinlessness - this HE did for love of us.

 

Your life does have meaning, value and purpose - you were created by an Awesome Loving GOD; to know HIM in intimate relationship, to walk with HIM in adoration and obedience. You were made for HIS glory and only in HIS Presence will you discover “fullness of joy.” Psalm 16:11 “YOU will show me the path of life; in YOUR Presence is fullness of joy; at YOUR right hand are pleasures forevermore.”

Set your desires, your longings, your heart upon HIS heart, and not upon yourself, material possessions, ’success’, power …. this world is not your permanent home, we are here for such a brief moment in time - eternity beckons. Live your life built upon The ROCK of Ages and nothing will move you, for HE HIMSELF will guard and keep you, guiding you safely home to HIMSELF.

 

JESUS The CHRIST came and died in your stead upon a brutal Cross, taking your sin and its deserved punishment in HIS own body - so that HE could save you! 

John 3:17 “For GOD did not send HIS SON into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through HIM might be saved.”

 

The choice is yours - HE  who came to give you “abundant life” (John 10:10) sets before you life and death - heed HIS heart’s cry to you, ”Choose life that you might live!” (Dueteronomy 30:19)  

 

 

 

(C) Cheryl Howard 2008

 

You’ve fallen in a pit so deep

Your life lays at your feet, a heap,

Failure felt, so raw, can’t speak

Your tears are crusted and you can’t weep.

 

No strength to even shout your rage

Life’s at an end with no new page,

Some useless actor shunted off your stage

Living death’s become your lifelong wage.

 

Where can you go from here too now?

Has defeat become your final bow?

Your cherished dreams of youth turned sour,

Is this the end, you face your final hour?

 

Gripped within, the crushing death of hope,

Can’t find breath as on your grief you choke.

A feeble silent plea escapes to GOD Who spoke,

To HIM Who roused the dead, the sleeping HE awoke.

 

Is there a chance that HE can pull you out,

Lift you from this pit of hell, raised in triumphant shout?

How can you muster a shred of hope, so crippled by your doubt,

When all you see is hopelessness and emptiness about?

 

HE knows as well as you do, you don’t deserve HIS grace,

Yet you hear HIS urgent voice say, “Child MY SON took your place,

I am the GOD who rescues, will you choose to seek MY face?

Just put your trust within MY SON – your sin did HE erase!”

 

“I am the GOD of hope, the LORD of each new day’s dawning,

I am The One who breathes HIS life on the ashes of your mourning.

It is I who lifts you up and transforms your defeat,

SON of GOD Alone, Whom your deepest need does meet!”

 

 

 

 

 thought for the journey…

Romans 6:16 “Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness.”

 

How sorely we need to learn to cling to The SON of GOD, to ‘present ourselves to HIM’, to yield to HIM, to abandon ourselves in surrender to HIM - don’t shut HIM out when you struggle, don’t try to ’soldier on’ yourself - instead, depend upon HIM, lean upon HIM, let HIM pour HIS strength into you!

For then our most difficult trials can become the source of our greatest blessings - intimacy with ALMIGHTY GOD and the inexpressible joy that only comes from HIS Presence, from throwing ourselves with total trust into HIS arms! Paul the Apostle learnt this lesson, and that is why he was able to say in 2 Corinthians 12:10 “Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for CHRIST’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong!”

 

True failure is to shut The LORD out, to try to be ’strong enough’ all by ourselves, to be ’self’ sufficient and to cut ourselves off from HIS grace, HIS forgiveness & restoration - it is not that we stumble, for in truth we all do at times (as long as we aren’t using HIS grace as an excuse to wilfully sin); but it is to withdraw from HIM in our shame, self pity & sorrow, or in self righteousness (I’ll do it my way, on my terms, I’ll fix it by myself…). When we fail we should run with urgency into HIS embrace, confessing our failure & our desperate need of HIM - it is grave folly to think we don’t need HIM; for we need HIM every moment of every day, in our successes and in our failures, more than the oxygen we inhale!

 

1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, HE is faithful & just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

HE is The GOD of second, third, fourth, fifth …. chances. We need HIM!