Overcoming Pessimistic and Complacent Opinions
(Zeph. 3:16,17)
"The Lord your God in the midst of you is mighty. He will save. He will rejoice over you with love. He will rest in His love. He will shout over you with singing."
OPINIONS
On the first day of school, a first-grader handed his teacher a Note from ! his mother. The note read, "The opinions expressed by this child are not necessarily those of his parents."
KETCHUP
A woman was trying hard to get the ketchup to come out of the jar. During her struggle the phone rang so she asked her 4-year-old daughter to answer the phone. "It’s the minister, Mommy," the child said to her mother. Then she added, "Mommy can’t come to the phone to talk to you right now. She’s hitting the bottle."
SCHOOL
A little girl had just finished her first week of school. "I’m just wasting my time," she said to her mother. "I can’t read, I can’t write and they won’t let me talk!"
As seen in a dog’s diary:
7 am - Oh boy! A walk! My favorite!
8 am - Oh boy! Dog food! My favorite!
9 am - Oh boy! The kids! My favorite!
Noon - Oh boy! The yard! My favorite!
2 pm - Oh boy! A car ride! My favorite!
3 pm - Oh boy! The kids! My favorite!
4 pm - Oh boy! Playing ball! My favorite!
6 pm - Oh boy! Welcome home Mom! My favorite!
7 pm - Oh boy! Welcome home Dad!! My favorite!
8 pm - Oh boy! Dog food! My favorite!
9 pm - Oh boy! Tummy rubs on the couch! My favorite!
11 pm - Oh boy! Sleeping in my people’s bed! My favorite!
There are plenty of reasons that it is said, "A dog is man’s best friend. They are upbeat and they do not complain.
When people look at the news on TV many people become pessimistic and start to complain about the seeming hopelessness in our circumstances. Yet, we must remember that God is in control and His love, power and truth still conquers all. Jesus said, "In the world, you will have trouble, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." (John 16:33) John wrote, "Greater is He who is in you than He who is in the world." (I John 4:4)
In the book of Zephaniah we are taught that the prophet was used to warn the people of Judah that if they refused to repent the entire nation would be lost. Zephaniah told them that in order for God to bless them he must first judge them for their sin. There is consequences for sin and it is God’s method of purifying His people for His greater purposes and the display of His splendor. Even though we live in a fallen, sinful and corruption oriented society yet we can be optimistic and actively involved in carrying out His will in all of His aspects with vigor.
Luther wrote, "Though this world with devils filled should threaten to undo us. We will not fear for God has willed His truth to triumph through us. The prince of darkness grim. We tremble not at him... His kingdom is forever."
Though we are surrounded by evil we can hope in God. David wrote, "Why are you cast down O my soul. Hope in God for I will yet praise Him. For He is the help of my countenance and my strong tower." (Psa 42)We can count it all joy when we encounter various trials knowing God is in the midst of us using all things for our benefit. (Rom 8:28,29) He is for us so who can be against us?
Zephaniah teaches us several key lessons:
1. God cannot undue the consequences of sin as the wages of sin is death, but He can bring mercy, restoration and the completion of His mighty plans. Therefore, let us sing, rejoice and praise Him for His capacities to turn tragedies into His greater triumphs. Let us worship the Lord for His mighty, sovereign power and engineering capabilities to turn any Red Sea experience in to a legacy of His overturning capacities.
2. To escape God’s chastening we must learn to listen to Him, accept His correction, trust Him and seek His guidance in all circumstances. If we accept His Lordship over our hardships He will teach us new insights that will make us better rather than bitter, cynical or distrustful and tepid in our response to adversity.
3. Let us not be preoccupied with the negative news reports that besiege us when we listen to the TV. The news media is primarily interested in ratings and they follow the mantra, "If it bleeds, it leads." They tend to promote the gruesome as they know it will gain them greater notoriety. Learn to overlook and not concentrate on the horrid, awful and skeptical projections of people who want to stir up attention for their own advancement.
4. Although Judah showed occasional attempts at renewal, the people exhibited no real sorrow for their sins. The people were prosperous so they so no longer cared for God’s control and truth and direction. The people of Judah supposed that God’s demands for righteous living were irrelevant. They found their security in possessions, temporal things and allowed their wealth to make them complacent. Do not let material comfort and pleasures choke out the lessons of the word of God in your life. Do not fall in to the trap of proud self-sufficiency. We need to always depend on the Lord for everything. From Him and through Him and to Him are all things. (Rom 11:33-36) We need to admit that our education, position and privileges are given to us by God as a loan. He can take away anything He wants whenever He chooses as He did with Job to teach us valuable lessons. (Job 42:1-6)
5. The day of judgment will also be a day of cheer. We can rest assured that God will judge the wicked. Whatever a man sows that will He also reap. For the one who sows corruption will reap corruption. The mind set on the flesh is death but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace. (Rom 8:6-8) God will judge those who mistreat His people. He will purify his people by pruning, purging and proscribing evil out of their life. The Lord is the one who restores us after taking us through the valleys of the shadow of death.
6. The secret to coping with adversity is hoping. The Lord God in our midst gives us hope, optimism and assurances of His great promises. The Lord never fails nor does He ever forsake us so that we can confidently say, The Lord is my helper, from whom then shall I be afraid." We can be confident, courageous and pro-active in our ministries knowing whom we have believed. Paul wrote from a jail cell in the midst of all kinds of pessimistic circumstances and persecutions, "I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed to Him against that day." (2 Tim 1:12)
7. When people are purged of sin, there is great relief, hope and renewal. The Lord is using the hardships in the world to bring us to the realization that He is the only one who can deliver us from all of life’s complications. David wrote, "I love the Lord because He is my strength. He is my rock, fortress and my deliver. The one whom I trust. He is my shield, the horn of my salvation and my strong tower. I will call upon the Lord. He is worthy to be praised. So shall I be saved from my enemies. The Lord lives and blessed be the Rock and let the God of my salvation be exalted." (Psa 18:1-6)Let the Lord buoy your strength even beyond your natural expectations or experiences.
8. God will remove the proud, the complainers and the sinful. He is the one who fights the battles for us. Let Him contend for you and learn to rest and nest and be fully blessed in Him. Do not forget to cast all of your cares upon Him for He cares for you even though the devil prowls around you like a roaring lion seeking whom He may devour. After you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace who calls you to His eternal glory in Christ will Himself confirms you and make you strong, firm and steadfast." (I Pet 5:7-11)
9. Let the Lord calm your fears and fill you with His promise, "God has not given you a spirit of fear, but of power, love and self-control." (2 Tim 1:7) The specific deliverance in this promise may not be fulfilled today, but it will be fulfilled in God’s perfect timing. The restoration work of God will become obvious to all. The message of doom in the beginning of the book of Zephaniah becomes the message of hope. There is always a new day coming when God will bless His people and deliver them in His time, way and will.
Song: There is hope for the helpless. Rest for the weary. Healing for the brokenhearted. There is grace and forgiveness, mercy and healing. He will meet you wherever you are. Cry out to Jesus. Cry out to Jesus.
10. Let us do the same as Zephaniah and encourage the people to come together to pray for revival, resurgence and restoration of the power, perspectives, perceptions, priorities, praise and purposes of God. Let us not just reform outwardly but also in our attitudes, emotions and mind set. Let others hear of the message of hope that God offers to all through the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Know that gladness results when we rejoice in the Lord and in His mighty assurances. Joy results when God is with us ruling, reigning and working through us. We can do that by following Him and keeping His commands. Then the Lord will rejoice over us and we will find greater favor, fellowship and blessings from His hand.
Quote, "If you want to be happy, optimistic and triumphant. Draw closer to the source of happiness, optimism and triumph through praise of God’s attributes."
David wrote, "I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise will continually be in my mouth. My soul will make its boast in the Lord. The humble will hear it and be glad. O magnify the Lord with me. Let us exalt His name together. I sought the Lord and He heard me and delivered me from all of my fears." (Psa 34:1-4)
Basis Frasure in his book "Taking Every Thought Captive" writes about eight ways that we often try to rationalize our sin without adequately confessing it:
"The sins which one harbors in his soul are like strongholds within the city. One may be afraid that other people might find out about the inner strongholds of sin; therefore, he builds a wall of defense around the city. The field of psychology has come up with several dozen defense mechanisms that we may use to keep from facing the truth about our failures and our lives.
The psychological defense mechanisms are like the stones that make up the wall about the city. Some of the more formal ones are denial, suppression, projection, rationalization, regression, displacement, idolization, and compensation.
(1) Denial is when we simply deny that we did what we did. "I didn’t do it!" Peter used denial when he was asked if he knew Jesus (Matthew 26:69-75).
(2) Suppression is voluntarily pressing something that we have done down deep in our subconscience so that we won’t have to look at it.
(3) Projection is projecting our sinful behavior upon someone else. "I didn’t do it. John did it."
(4) Rationalization is trying to reason away any guilt involved. It is saying, "Well, it was only a little white lie."
(5) Regression is an attempt to relive an earlier time of our lives so that we don’t have to face the current situation.
(6) Displacement is one that we all use. Instead of taking responsibility for our wrong, we kick the cat or scream at the children.
(7) Idolization is redirecting our attention off ourselves and placing it upon someone whom we would like to be.
(8) Compensation is trying to make up for some failure in one area of our lives by excelling in another area of our lives. Each of these are lies of the enemy that make up a stronghold. They are sins. Although the devil blinds our eyes at times, we allow him to do so. To get a clear conscience we must face the truth about our sin.
The next step to get a clear conscience is to experience the fear of the LORD. "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction" (Proverbs 1:7). The fear of the LORD is to connect our wrong actions to God’s response to our actions. Until we do this, we will continue in our ways of sin. We must realize that God sees and knows everything that we do wrong whether it is in the dark or anyone else knows about it or not. God exhorts us by saying, "Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil" (Proverbs 3:7). The fear of the LORD goes beyond the fear of getting caught. God’s Word says, "The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate" (Proverbs 8:13). We should also understand that if we can trust God to discipline us, then we may also trust Him to reward us. "In the fear of the LORD is strong confidence: and his children shall have a place of refuge" (Proverbs 14:26). We should see that we must begin with the fear of the LORD; then we can move on to restoration. "The fear of the LORD is the instruction of wisdom; and before honour is humility" (Proverbs 15:33). "
From Chapter Five of Basis Frasure’s Taking Every Thought Captive
