Focus: Say It Out Loud To Yourself!

Text: Ps.40:17

"But I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinketh upon me…"

You owe yourself a daily dose of Scriptural confessions. Why so? It is because you live in a world where life's circumstances and conditions may cause you to think very low of yourself. You know, life has a way of lying to us at times, even making us feel wrongly about ourselves and living in doubt of ourselves. Even in the things we do best, we find ourselves doing them with lots of doubt.

People look at your present plight and say awful things to you or say damning things about you. They talk you down and talk you out. You feel greatly marginalized and depreciated. The psalmist complains, "My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually SAY unto me, Where is thy God?… As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies REPROACH me; while they SAY DAILY unto me, Where is thy God?… Wherefore should the heathen SAY, Where is now their God?" (Ps.42:3,10; 115:2). 

A woman committed suicide, and when the police arrived, they found the note she left behind with only two words on it: THEY SAID. She took her life for what the 'they' said. That is the world in which we live. A world in which people move from mild tensions to advanced traumas, and even to the point of despairing of life and terminating their own lives. The psalmist says again, "Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God…"  (Ps.42:11). Life diminishes and loses charm when hope is lost. When we lose hope living becomes meaningless.

You need to understand that your condition of life does not nullify your position before God. How God sees you does not change because of what you are going through in life.

The psalmist says, "I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinks upon me…" One translation has it that "the Lord will take care of me."

Say it out loud to yourself: 'The Lord thinks of me. He will take care of me. My God is mindful of me. The thoughts He thinks toward me are thoughts of good, and not of evil; to give me a hope and a future. The Lord is my Shepherd; and I shall not want.'

Look at yourself in the mirror and express your faith in God! Faith speaks; it says what God says. It agrees with God in everything. The Word says, "Let the redeemed of the Lord say so." Talk about the goodness of your God! Tell of His loving kindness! Tell yourself that no weapon formed against you shall prosper! 'Yes, God is concerned about me! He is mindful of me. He is committed to my life. He cares for me.' Say with Micah, "Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD shall be a light unto me" (Mic.7:8).

See yourself as God sees you! Say what God says of you! Against all odds believe in hope!

The psalmist says to himself, "Hope thou in God." Hope in the Lord! Hope in the word of the Lord! Hope in the Lord's mercy! Count on the Lord's faithfulness! Trust in His judgment!

You are not a loser. You are not a failure. You are not a flop. You are not defeated. You are neither a misfit nor a mistake. You are not down and out. You are not a disgrace. You are not a product of chance. You are not all chaff and no wheat. You are not a nonentity. You are not doomed, and it is not over yet.

See life from the bright side! See your future from God's vantage point! Your destiny is divinely crafted, and it makes sense. Solomon tells us that the path of the just "is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day" (Prov.4:18). Your future is looking good and your life is getting better by the day. Say it out loud to yourself that 'It is well with my soul. My life matters on planet earth. The Lord thinks upon me. The Lord will take care of me. I am blessed in Christ. I am God's battle axe and weapon of war. I am born to succeed and bound to win. God has created me for His glory, and I cannot settle for less. Amen!'

by Bishop Moses E. Peter