FBC Daily Devotional – December 31, 2020

Faith Baptist Church

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Well, here we are. New Year's Eve, last day of 2020.

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Wouldn't it be nice if, when the ball dropped tonight, that COVID was squashed and all of the mess with that was gone and the political turmoil disappeared and everything else?

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Wouldn't that be a wonderful thing? It's important that we face reality, of course, yes.

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We've been kind of talking about that a little bit this week as we've dealt with the problem of post -holiday blues.

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When the tinsel and garland comes down, do we have to come down with it? We don't.

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We often do, but we don't have to, and that's what we want to deal with.

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What strategies do we have to avoid those post -holiday blues?

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I've suggested that there are at least three battlegrounds where we can deal with this depression, if you will.

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One's the battleground of our circumstances, and we have to be aware of very powerful temptations that confront us, and we have to be aware of quitting just because we're blue.

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Then we need to be alert to the battleground of our attitudes. What are the attitudes that are behind the depression?

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What expectations did we have that either were met or were dashed and have since led us to a sense of despair?

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But today, as we wrap this up, I want to think about the battleground of our feelings, the battleground of our feelings.

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There is an area where we're likely to struggle with despair, our feelings.

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Now, I'm not going to talk so much about the cause of those feelings as addressing the symptoms and the cure, and I want to do that by looking at this incident in 1

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Samuel 16 with Saul, King Saul. Remember, Saul got to this point in his reign as the king.

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He'd been disobedient. He was told the kingdom was going to be taken from him, and we're told that the

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Spirit of the Lord departed from him, and a depressing spirit came upon him.

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A harmful spirit from the Lord tormented him. So he's in torments. We don't know what that looked like.

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I suspect it was very much, it probably looked an awful lot like depression, just the blues coupled with some anger perhaps, but I think largely depression.

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And so what was done about Saul's depression? Well, one thing we can be sure of is that he couldn't do anything about the arrival of his feelings, and neither can you or I.

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We know that because in verse 15, it says, this harmful spirit from the

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Lord tormented him, and Saul's servants said to him, behold now, a harmful spirit of God is tormenting you.

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So it's like he didn't know it was coming. He didn't ask for it, and he had no control over its arrival whatsoever.

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And it's the same with us. We can't control our feelings.

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Feelings come and feelings go. I mean, how many times have you awakened in the morning feeling tired?

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I mean, it wasn't your choice. You just woke up and you didn't want to get out of bed. You felt tired.

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You felt like you hadn't slept enough. Well, that's one kind of feeling. Have you ever experienced the feeling of you're going along, everything's fine, and then you see something that triggers a memory and it just sends you?

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Okay. So you can't control the arrival of feelings, but you don't have to be controlled by those feelings, and that's the critical thing.

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That's the critical thing. So in verse 16, Saul's servants say, this harmful spirit has come upon you.

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You're depressed. So then they say this, let our Lord now command your servants who are before you to seek a man who is skillful in playing the liar, and when the harmful spirit of God is upon you, he will play it and you will be well.

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So they looked at a potential solution to this harmful spirit so that he did not have to be controlled by it.

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Now, you can, if you wake up in the morning feeling tired, you can just crawl back in bed until nine o 'clock or whatever, and of course, suffer the consequences if you're expected to be at work at eight, but nevertheless, and you can wallow in your despair and you can just lay around all day and glue yourself in front of the

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TV and eat all kinds of stuff that you shouldn't eat just to try to assuage your depression.

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You can be controlled by your feelings, but you don't have to be controlled by your feelings, and that's an important thing to realize.

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People often say, well, you know, I just feel this way. I can't help the way I feel. No, you can't help the way you feel, but you can help what you do about the way you feel.

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So that's the important thing. You can take action. You can take action.

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That is something that you can control. So you can't control the feelings, whether they come or go, but you can take action to overcome those feelings if you will choose to do so, and Saul chooses to do so, verses 16 and 17.

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So after the servants suggested that, verse 17 says, Saul said to his servants, provide me a man who can play well and bring him to me, and so that's exactly what they did, and that's how

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David ended up in Saul's court, and we read that whenever in verse 21,

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David in verse 23 says, whenever the harmful spirit from God was upon Saul, David took the lyre and played it with his hand.

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So Saul was refreshed and was well, and the harmful spirit departed from him. So the choice to take some action to kind of deal with his harmful spirit was very effective.

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He couldn't control the arrival of the feelings. He couldn't control the feelings themselves, but he could take some action to overcome those feelings.

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So what did he do? Well, he listened to some good music. Maybe that's a good piece of advice if you're feeling blue.

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Listen to some good music, some music that will uplift you, not some depressing stuff that's minor key that's going to make you wallow in your sadness.

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Listen to stuff that will uplift you, and send your mind elsewhere. So like I said a minute ago, you're going along fine, and then you see this thing, you see something, you come across something, and it triggers a memory, and that sends you in a tailspin.

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That memory sends you in a tailspin. Well, focus on other things.

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The Bible exhorts us to think upon things that are lovely and true and praiseworthy and excellent and virtuous and so forth.

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Think on these things, Paul tells us. I realize that it's easy to say that, it's easy to encourage that, and I'm speaking from experience.

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It's altogether another thing to actually do it and compel your mind to go somewhere else.

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But focus, try to focus your mind on someone else. But then also focus on someone else.

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It's an interesting statement we read in verse 21, and when David came into Saul's employ and helped him out with this harmful spirit by playing the liar, that verse 21 says that David came to Saul, entered his service, and Saul loved him greatly, and he became his armor bearer.

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Saul loved him greatly. One of the things I've seen people do when they get blue and depressed is they close themselves off from others.

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They kind of retreat into a shell, and one of the encouragements that I would offer to folks in that situation is find a way to serve someone else.

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Find a way to connect with someone else, to focus on someone else, to love someone else.

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For it's in that action that you can find your own spirit lifted and the harmful spirit depart from you.

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So let me encourage you in that way. Start focusing on someone else and not so much on yourself.

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I hope this has been somewhat of a help to you. I realize what we've said this week doesn't answer all of the problems and all the issues, but there are just some basic things that I think are very practical that can be helpful if we're struggling with some post -holiday blues.

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Starting tomorrow, I'll be doing the daily devotionals based on a

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Scripture reading schedule, a Bible reading schedule that, if you follow it, would take you through the reading of the entire

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Bible in two years. Now, often those are one -year plans, but this is a two -year plan, and I'll take devotionals right from that day's reading.

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So tomorrow, we'll be reading from Genesis chapter 1 and 2, and also from the first Psalm.

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So I would encourage you to look at those passages ahead of time.

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If you would like a copy of that Bible reading schedule, send a Facebook message or an email, and I can email that to you, get that to you, so you can follow along in the daily devotionals.

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So the first installment of that will come tomorrow on New Year's Day, and then beginning

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Monday, we'll get into that routine of sharing some devotional thoughts from the daily reading.

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So I hope that you can participate in that. Well, Father, we thank you for the ending of this year, and thank you that we have a new year to look forward to.

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You have been faithful to us through this past year, and we know we can trust you for that which is to come.

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Help us, Lord, to be faithful to you, to walk with you, to live for you. We ask it in Jesus' name and for his sake.

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Amen. All right. Well, I hope you have a good New Year's Eve celebration, and hope you'll join in tomorrow on New Year's Day for a few minutes of devotional time.