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Over the past month, my daughter has been having nightmares, scary thoughts, and dreams that keep her from peacefully sleeping. I am occasionally afflicted with nightmares and can relate to the emotional terror of a bad dream, it is new for her. My daugher cannot handle the darkness that intrudes on her childhood peace, each nightmare a wave that threatens to capsize her emotional stability.
The other night she came into our bedroom with tears streaming down her face. She was on the verge of hyperventilating and struggled to say, “mom, I had a bad dream.” We have talked before about the importance of taking our thoughts captive, as Paul stated in 2 Corinthians 10:5
5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
2 Corinthians 10:5 NIV
So, I reminded her of this biblical expectation and encouraged her to think of things she was grateful for as I consoled her. Tears poured down her face like river channels, and she struggled to speak over her rapid breath. My daugher stated with overhwelming sadness, “I can’t think of anything good!”
Oh my child…
I was able to get my daughter back to sleep that night, and thanks to God the rest of her dreams were peaceful. My daughter’s hopeless state helped me reflect on the times in my life I felt the heavy burden of despair. How the feeling of despair can seep into your soul, how we wear it as a dark weighted cloak, and everything feels impossible under the suffocating pressure.
Worst of all how the enemy can and will use despair to push a wedge between you and God.
How we end up in a sticky trap, unable to think of the good in our lives because the neon light of despair blinds us to the truth. Her words, “I can’t think of anything good!” echo in my mind, because I have felt that way when I allow despair to pull me under and separate me from the truth and love of Jesus.
Have you felt that way too? Perhaps you feel that way right now.
Oh, brothers and sisters in Christ, despair has an antidote, a secret elixir custom-made for us. It is the healing power of the Blood of Jesus, His atonement for our sins. When you cannot think of anything good, think of Jesus. Draw near to Jesus, do not allow the enemy to use emotions to make walls. Reject thoughts that speak against the truth of the unrelenting, never stopping, unbreakable love of Jesus.
16 Rejoice always, 17 pray continually, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 NIV
We must be intentional with our focus and that focus MUST be Jesus. Day in, day out in all things, Jesus.
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16 NIV
What good news, even on the darkest of days, Jesus is real, His sacrifice on the Cross was and is for us. If we can think of nothing else, let us speak the name of Jesus. “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus” forever and ever.
May you find peace this day in the name of Jesus. He is enough, He is everything. -Amen