Selwyn summary of the two main responses to the emotion of despair – perhaps reflects, the two main responses of mankind, to God’s love – to either embrace, or to reject (there are no other possible options)!
He writes: “We spend one more day on the subject of despair, reflecting a little more om what the emotion may be telling us about our view of God. Despair, we said, vocalises the question: Will God come to my aid or will He leave me in isolation? A good question to ask ourselves in relation to despair is this: Where does despair drive us? To self-pity or into the arms of God?”
In Luke 4:14-19 (New Living Translation), we read: “Then Jesus returned to Galilee, filled with the Holy Spirit’s power. Reports about him spread quickly through the whole region. He taught regularly in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.
When he came to the village of Nazareth, his boyhood home, he went as usual to the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read the Scriptures. The scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where this was written:“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.”
Indeed, ‘the oppressed will be set free by the good news about Jesus’ – we, cannot be in a permanent state of despair if we have a genuine relationship with our Lord, our God. Do you agree?
Into the arms of God
Selwyn summary of the two main responses to the emotion of despair – perhaps reflects, the two main responses of mankind, to God’s love – to either embrace, or to reject (there are no other possible options)!
He writes: “We spend one more day on the subject of despair, reflecting a little more om what the emotion may be telling us about our view of God. Despair, we said, vocalises the question: Will God come to my aid or will He leave me in isolation? A good question to ask ourselves in relation to despair is this: Where does despair drive us? To self-pity or into the arms of God?”
In Luke 4:14-19 (New Living Translation), we read: “Then Jesus returned to Galilee, filled with the Holy Spirit’s power. Reports about him spread quickly through the whole region. He taught regularly in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.
When he came to the village of Nazareth, his boyhood home, he went as usual to the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read the Scriptures. The scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where this was written:“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.”
Indeed, ‘the oppressed will be set free by the good news about Jesus’ – we, cannot be in a permanent state of despair if we have a genuine relationship with our Lord, our God. Do you agree?