So, instead of murmuring or complaining, I will rejoice. People everywhere are experiencing hard times, but we can still rejoice. It doesn’t matter that your pantry is empty, or that your refrigerator holds only water – rejoice! If you have only a meal for the day, rejoice! If you can’t pay your bills, rejoice! In everything, give thanks and rejoice for this is God’s will concerning you. Don’t worry. God will work it out in His time. Just rejoice!!

You have a winning smile”, I used to be told. Once upon a time, I would smile and the world would smile back at me. Back then when I smiled, my eyes twinkled. My smile was genuine because I was happy. With no cares of life and in-spite-of my impoverished life, I was happy. My twinkled eyes happy smiles had stopped, not because I became over anxious with the cares of life, but because a friend told me that I was sending the wrong signal. I was younger then and didn’t know better, so I stopped smiling. As I grew older, I allowed other things to hide my smile.

You too may be facing your storms. You are not alone. Remember someone is praying for you. Help is already on the way. So, hold on! Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Just as God sent help for His Son in the hour of need, your help is coming. Take courage. You are not alone.

Sing the clouds away, night will turn to day, if you sing and sing and sing you’ll drive the clouds away. The words of this childhood song are still true today. When you sing, its like the weight is lifted and you feel free, empowered to go on. There’s no need for strong drink, cigarettes, or even increase food intake – all you need to do is just sing. Keep a song in your heart and you will be singing as the days go by.

When trouble comes, your faith could be shipwrecked! So, what is it that will keep your faith from being shipwrecked or that will serve as a motivator for you to go on, rise and hope again? It’s your belief in God. Your relationship with God – if you truly know Him, will serve to buoy your spirits on. It was the same for Job – though He slay me, yet will I trust Him; it was the same for Paul – for I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor anything shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord Jesus.

The blind men followed Jesus from one point to the next while calling out to Him to have mercy on them. They would never give up on their dream of sight. They wanted their sight: they kept going and kept asking. Others were following Jesus too, so the throng must have been hard to follow – but they kept going, they kept calling out to Him.

I experienced real depression some years ago when all I wanted to do was just to lie in bed and just be lazy. It was painful to dress for work, to smile, to concentrate on other things except myself; I was just going through the motions. I was not physically ill, nor was I suffering from the burnt-out syndrome. It was not physical tiredness or exhaustion. I allowed the crucibles I was facing to almost get the better of me.

Are you bowed down with care? Have you personally experienced injustice and there seems nothing you can do about it? Does it seem like all you touch turned to stone and just withered and died? Is your faith in God seems stretched to the limit? Carry on. Don’t give up and don’t give in. Don’t be envious of others prosperity. Keep on believing. Your breakthrough is coming. Carry on. God will see you through.

Whatever the disorder or reaction that causes depression, it is real. King Solomon diagnosed that the underlying cause for depression is anxiety in the heart. He also prescribed the most effective medication for the treatment and reversal of this pandemic problem. The wisest man said to treat and reverse depression, we need to make the heart glad; and this is easily achievable by speaking ‘a good word’. An encouraging word is a positive shot in the right direction.