on. Can you guys hear me? Not really? A little bit? All right, well let's get started here with Sunday School. I was out there in the hallway talking and forgetting that I was the one that was supposed to start us off here and lead, so we're a bit behind. There's a paper, a pair of papers coming around that We'll work from today, and given what time it is, we'll see how far we get. Maybe we'll go. depending on how the kids do, maybe we'll go a little bit after 12. But the topic for today is, I thought, something that would work well as a kind of a one-time consideration, expanding a bit on a lot of the things that, or the type of thing that Pastor Hollister has been talking about, living from the Psalms, where we see in Scripture templates and guides and examples and and motifs and so forth that help us in our prayer life, in our spiritual life in general, in our thoughts. And so what I wanted to do was talk about how we can use scripture to guide our daily thinking. that in one of the weeks, Pastor Hollister mentioned, I forget who it was that gave the quote, maybe Martin Lloyd-Jones or somebody, said that depression is listening to yourself rather than talking to yourself. In other words, depression comes from allowing whatever bubbles up from within in your thought life, in your emotional life, your feelings, what's already there in your natural flesh, to be what guides you and to be what forms and shapes your thoughts and your feelings, unfiltered or unchanged, potentially. So, you're constantly listening to yourself, giving credence to whatever it is that naturally, inadvertently comes out of your heart, rather than taking active command and control through Scripture to talk to yourself, particularly to talk to yourself from God's Word, right, where You don't just sort of go with the flow of, well, this is how I feel, or this is the thought that occurred to me, but filtering, shaping, guiding your daily thoughts with scripture. And so I've subtitled it Ingredients of Despair and Depression, or of Peace, Joy, and Hope. And the point is that in our daily thought lives, in our responses to things that happen to us throughout the day, throughout the week, the little contributing elements that gather together to form despair and depression are present, or little contributing elements, ingredients, that gather together to form and produce, shape joy and peace and hope through the Holy Spirit are there also. And we want to take active control of that as Christians who are guided by the mind of Christ. So remember that Psalm 42, verse 5, Pastor Hollister read before, why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God. That's talking to yourself, right? Not just listening, but saying, okay, I recognize that my circumstances are difficult. The psalmist recognizes that, right? He has people against him. He has travail, turmoil of various kinds. He recognizes that circumstance, but then he takes active control and says, soul, Why are you cast down? And he urges himself to hope in the Lord. That's a sort of basic theme of what we're going to talk about today, using the example of ingredients, thoughts that lead towards depression and despair, and those being, in essence, sinful thoughts. On the other hand, thoughts from scripture that contribute towards peace, joy, and hope. So the first section there on page one is listening to ourselves. I'm using that phrase in two senses. First of all, you need to listen to yourself. In this sense, you need to notice the things that naturally come out of your mouth or into your mind. What am I inclined to say or think or feel when circumstances aren't going well, right? It just bubbles up. The Bible says that. From out of the heart, the mouth speaks, right? From inwardly, whatever's in our hearts comes to expression. And so you need to listen to yourself in order to notice what is my natural tendency in response to God's providence. And listen to yourself. Do you hear yourself saying this and that and the other? You need to notice that. That's the first step to being able to resist it. If you don't notice it at all, you're not going to resist it, right? Notice what naturally comes into your heart or out of your mouth. and notice it in order to mortify it, in order to put it to death. And then the second thing we'll talk about, talking to yourself, is thoughts that we would seek to replace these sinful thoughts with. So the first section then is several categories that tend to come naturally to us in our sin. I listed some here, and these are really, you could add a lot more, but these are examples. Annoyance, fatalism, worry, thinking in terms of false necessity. I'll talk about that in a little bit. Exaggerating the fearful consequences that are gonna come about from something bad in your life, exaggerating it in your mind. Sense of isolation. despair itself, and I said here also, cringing before the Lord. In other words, expecting harshness or insensitivity and lack of consideration from the Lord. These are all, brothers and sisters, these are all symptoms. symptoms of something else going on in your heart. And now what I've done here is I've listed phrases that you could very easily speak or think all throughout the day, any given day, and you need to try to notice. Not just in yourself, notice this in your husband or your wife, your children, your Christian co-worker who you might be able to encourage, in order to say, you know, There's something implied in what you just said, or to say to yourself, you know, there's something implied in what I just said. And the implication is false and sinful, right? So let me give you an example. This is ridiculous. How often do we think that, right? It's, in a sense, a natural thing to think, and you could, in a sense, say, yeah, some things in this world are ridiculous, right? But the phrase, in this sense, this is pointless. This is senseless. This is just angering, right? In that sense, you're expressing your indignation with the circumstances in your life. Now, again, we're all prone to that sometimes, but we also all need to notice ourselves in that. Because implied in that sort of thought is no one is overseeing what's going on here in any good way. Which, again, follow that out a little bit, it's implied is God is not overseeing all of this and directing it in any good way. So the little phrase, this is ridiculous, says something, not necessarily purposefully, but it still does say something about how God is running the world. You have a theology, maybe unknowingly expressed in your little phrase, this is ridiculous. And if that comes to be a regular way of thinking for you, day in, day out, this is ridiculous, and that's ridiculous, and the other thing is ridiculous, then you're more and more reinforcing to yourself that God isn't in control or he's not doing a good job of being in control, and that is an ingredient that leads to despair and depression. Right? It can lead to other things. It can lead to anger. It can lead to just many different forms of unbelief, but we'll talk mainly about despair and depression. Another example Things will never change. Isn't that the way it always is? That's an expression of a kind of fatalism, a kind of pessimism, right? It's always been this way, it'll always be this way, therefore what? Therefore, I'm stuck. Permanently, more or less. I mean, that's at least, in that moment, that's what you're saying. You might say to yourself, well, I know better than that. Yeah, that's the point. You know better than that. But do you think actively better than that or do you just get mired in a kind of fatalism? You notice natural responses of worry in yourself. Are you scanning the horizon of your life for perceived threats? Physical threats, emotional threats, relational threats, financial threats. Constantly checking that financial bottom line, maybe. Always kind of becoming obsessive with home security, right? My alarm system and my backup alarm system and my backup batteries, my backup alarm system, and rechecking and rechecking my windows. And we get into these things, right? You say, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, self. Why are you cast down on my soul? Why are you in turmoil within me? It starts with noticing. Dwelling on anticipated problems, dwelling on aspects of your life that you can't control. All of us have a control problem. Some of us have it worse than others. We can't, literally cannot, no matter what, control all of our lives. And we're not intended to, and we don't need to, but we feel like we need to. So do you notice patterns of worry in your life? That's an ingredient that will contribute over time to despair and depression. False necessity, meaning that you falsely suppose that your options are very restricted in life. And that if this happens, then this other bad thing will definitely happen. And there's no other two ways about it, right? You say, well, not necessarily. But in our sin, we think, yes, necessarily. And so what? It increases our fear. It increases our worry, but it's a symptom. Why do I keep thinking in these reductionistic, restricted terms? I'm governed by, I'm being led by fear. I'm being led, it's another, it's related to a kind of fatalism, right? Or exaggerating the likely consequences of something. If this happens, it's going to completely undo everything I've been working for, for 10 years. Usually that's not true, right? But we think it's true. We feel like it's true. And if we find ourselves saying things like that, then, again, it's something we need to notice, to say, did I just say that? Wait, wait a second. A symptom. If you're a doctor, we have a doctor here, we have another doctor somewhere else, You look for symptoms, right? Fever, chills, hives, whatever. Pain of this sort or that sort, right? These are spiritual symptoms. Isolation. Everyone else has it so easy. Now listen to that. Everyone else has it so easy. That means I'm the only one in my circumstance, right? But we say that to ourselves, don't we? or a different sort of isolation. It's up to me. Depends on me. If I don't do this, then no one's gonna do it, right? And so health, vitality, well-being, fulfillment, meaning in life, depends on me. And now you know that's not right when you think about it more, but in the moment, our sin and our flesh lead us to think that it's true, and the more times you say it, the more times you reinforce it, the more you really start to believe it, and the more the broader truths of God's word are really effectively crowded out of your heart, not being given any attention, right? The sinful misstatement that it's up to you comes to be bearing a lot of fruit in your life, and that which really tends to guide you. Is there going to be peace or joy or hope when you say that to yourself often. No, there's not. Because if it is up to you, we're all in a lot of trouble. Despair, I can't do this anymore. Right? This is too much. What it says is that the circumstances of my life are somehow so out of control that I literally can't cope with them. And the Bible says that's not true. We'll read some passages about it. But we have to believe that it's not true as a part of having peace and joy and hope rather than despair. Or cringing before the Lord, you know, you say, it figures. Just what you'd expect. Well, really? That's a really telling statement. What I expect from the Lord, right? Because that's implied. You don't necessarily say it that way, but it's implied. If the Lord is the creator of all things, if he's ruling my life and this world, and what I expect out of life is always bad, then what I'm saying, what I expect from the Lord is bad. That's the implication, right? So you maybe don't say it in that exact way, and maybe you wouldn't want to say it that exact way, but you are implying it, and the more you think about it that way, the more you will think of God as unkind to you, inconsiderate, malicious, or maybe just sort of incompetent at doing his job. Something's got to give. Is he all-powerful? Is he all-knowing? And is he loving? One of those has to give. And I have to effectively deny at least one of those if I expect bad things from the Lord constantly, right? So, we'll turn the page then and talk about addressing, talking to ourselves from scripture. These are thoughts that easily occur to us on this first page, right? We listen to ourselves, we find ourselves saying these things. The more we say them, the more they become our mindset and our way of life. We're guided by false, ultimately we'll say, sinful thinking and inaccurate thinking because what I'm saying isn't really true. Even though I keep saying it to myself. And so what we need to do then is guide our thoughts from scripture. Cultivate thinking correct thoughts, replacing incorrect sinful responses to things in your life with correct godly responses to things in your life to help form your mental thought life and patterns. And so there's statements here that follow with scripture underneath, and you could add a lot of different scripture. I've put in parentheses, if a given section especially addresses one of the problems or another, a lot of them are really, they go all, any given scripture could address lots of them. But let's start by this. Rather than saying, you know, this is ridiculous, or, oh, doesn't it just figure, right? These little statements that have a whole bad theology built into them. I need to say to myself actively throughout the day, throughout the week, when bad things happen in my prayer life, as I prepare to go somewhere and I know it's gonna be a challenge, I say to myself, the Lord will take care of me and bring about good purposes in my life. I mean, I just have to say that to myself sometimes. This week, Milena cut her toe barely at all, right, tiniest little scratch, hardly, you know, just, it didn't even drip any blood. It's like just bubbled up a tiny bit. Okay. She was beside herself. She couldn't get over it. Well, why? Because she continued to look at it. Right. And I said to her, sweetheart, this is what I want you to say. Have a little scratch. It hurts. and I'll be okay. And she looked at me, and I said, no, no, no, I want you to say that out loud right now. And we had to go through it a couple times, but then she starts to draw down, right? She's so, and she's looking at her problem, and she's thinking like, maybe I'm dying, or I don't know what she's thinking, but she's thinking of it as a huge, uncontrollable problem, and it's the fear of that. I think what she's really, in her case, mainly thinking is, This hurts so bad, and it's only gonna hurt forever. And I can't handle that much pain, right? And so, what I'm effectively saying to her is something, say, no, that's not actually true. Tell yourself the truth. Truth is, the Lord will take care of me and bring about good purposes in my life. And tell my kids, I'm not gonna tell you a lie. If you're gonna go in and get shots, I'm gonna tell you this is gonna hurt. I'm not gonna tell you, oh, it won't hurt. No, it'll hurt. for a minute, and it'll be done. You'll be alright. Okay? I'm not going to tell you that you're not going to have bad things in your life. I'm not going to tell you Christians have lives filled with lots of money and privilege and, you know... Some people say that. If you're having bad things in your life, it's just because you're not believing enough. That's really depressing. Because you're constantly looking at yourself as your lack of belief, when it's not true. There's sin in the world. Bad things really do happen. Difficult, trying, challenging things. And yet, in the midst of it, something else is true. And we have to remind ourselves and say it. The Lord will take care of me and bring about good purposes in my life. Say that over and over. Here's some scripture. Numbers chapter 6, speak to Aaron and his sons saying, thus you shall bless the people of Israel and you shall say to them. This is the benediction that I used this morning in the worship service. It's often called the Aaronic benediction given to Aaron and his sons as priests to pronounce upon the people, but it indicates God's will in the lives of his people. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them. Psalm 27, verses 1-7, the Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? When evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh, when my adversaries and foes, it is they who stumble and fall. Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. Though war arise against me, yet I will be confident. One thing I have asked of the Lord that I will seek after. I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord, to inquire in his temple, for he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble. He will conceal me under the cover of his tent, he will lift me high upon a rock. And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me, and I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy. I will sing and make melody to the Lord." And you could go on, right? There's Romans 8, 28, very famous, just very plain, right? All things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. And so I say to myself, is it true that I'm going through something difficult? Yeah, probably, right? I'm not trying to deny that. And yet, is that difficulty out of control? It's out of my control, most likely, right? Sometimes we have self-inflicted difficulties from our own direct sin. That's another category. But oftentimes, difficulties that we go through are out of our control. But is it out of everyone's control? No. The Lord will take care of me and bring about good purposes in my life. And I put in parentheses, this is really against every one of those symptoms on the prior page. Frustration, fatalism, worry, et cetera. Secondly here, under this talking to ourselves from scripture, my loving Heavenly Father designs testing and suffering for my good. The Bible says this in almost the exact same way over and over. Read Hebrews, I've listed here, Hebrews 12, James 1, and Romans 5, and you look at the wording, and lots of the terms are almost verbatim from one another. the key phrases in there. Psalm 103 as well, as a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him. That's a general, broad statement, and then you go in, and Hebrews chapter 12 says that the difficulties that we experience are the Lord's discipline, which he does for us out of love in order to produce, towards the end there, well, I gave a few extra verses, but, disciplines us for our good that we may share his holiness. About five lines from the end of the Hebrews 12 section. For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. This is our basic perspective when it comes to trials in our lives. Is it painful? Yes, it is. It says it right there. For the moment, all discipline is painful. And there's a purpose in it. And that purpose is loving. And that purpose is under good control by our Father in Heaven. Right? And so, what is it producing? Peace. A peaceful fruit of righteousness, right? So I tell myself that. I need to replace my, this is ridiculous pattern of thought, or it's up to me pattern of thought, or whatever of the other ones, I need to replace that with A Heavenly Father designs trials for my good. I maybe can't see it, right? I don't know how this is good. I mean, for the life of me, I don't see anything good in this. But that's not the way we guide ourselves, is it, based on what we can see. We guide ourselves on the basis of what's in Scripture, and it says it over and over, for your good. So I need to just say it, say it, say it, say it. create a pattern of thought for myself, by God's grace, to think rightly about my difficulty. James is pretty challenging. He says, count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds. Wow, okay. This is great. But he says it because he says, well, what does it do in our lives? He says, the testing of your faith produces steadfastness, and let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. If anyone lacks wisdom, let him ask God. And Romans 5 says almost a very similar thing. We rejoice in our sufferings, it says, knowing that suffering produces endurance. You could say steadfastness, the same basic word. Endurance produces character. Character produces hope. Hope does not put us to shame. Wow, there's a lot of good in this. Whether or not I see it, whether or not I can, my feelings tend to say that, I still know it because God says it over and over, right? Thirdly there, the third bullet, the source of my temptation lies in myself, not in my circumstances or the Lord. It's really crucial because we tend so often to take a kind of victim mentality. You know, Adam and Eve in the garden. It was the woman, right? That's what Adam says. Eve, it was the serpent. Nobody in the garden did anything wrong. You know, if this would just change. Well, he keeps doing that. And ultimately, when we blame our circumstances, ultimately we're blaming the Lord because the Lord's the one that gave us our circumstances. So Adam and Eve are blaming God, right? Woman, you put here with me. She gave me some fruit from the tree and I ate it, right? I need to tell myself that's not true. James chapter one, when tempted, it's very clear, no one should say God is tempting me. And so, along with that, no one should say my circumstances are at fault. What does he say? God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone, but each one is tempted when by his own evil desire he's dragged away and enticed. The problem is me. The problem is my sin. Whatever my circumstances are, are my circumstances. I could respond in a righteous way to those circumstances, or I could give in to my evil desire and respond with sin. So my circumstances aren't making me sin, and God isn't making me sin. And I need to say that to myself because why? Otherwise I feel indignant and frustrated with my circumstances. This is ridiculous. No, that's ridiculous. In a sense, it's natural, but it's wrong, right? The source of my temptation lies in myself, not my circumstances or the Lord. So, I can't blame the world, right? Nothing ever changes. Well, you know, some things I don't have the power to change. I pray to the Lord that he'll change them. Maybe he will in his good wisdom, or maybe he won't for now. Eventually he will, that's the really good news, right? Eventually he will change every single problem, solve all of them, and bring in complete blessing, and our problems should encourage us to pray for that day. Pray, thy kingdom come, Lord. That's what we really all need, right? But in the meantime, I need to seek to honor him and not simply say, yeah, my circumstances made me do it. Next after that, what I really deserve is entirely different than what I'm actually getting from the Lord. You have to tell yourself that, what I really deserve. How can we really be indignant as Christians ever? This went bad, that went bad, and none of it went as bad as it should, given my sin. None of it. Zero. Ever. And so, we see indignance implies that something else is really the way it should be, right? You can't be indignant unless you have a claim to prosecute. I'm mad, I'm indignant, I'm angry because I have a right to something. And if you really think truly from the Bible about what you have a right to, you'd be very grateful for what you actually got. Even by way of some more minor difficulty. And we've even said that the more minor difficulties, and every difficulty is more minor than hell, right? The more minor difficulties are even themselves for our good. So I'm not getting what I'm deserved. I'm not getting what I deserve. I'm getting something far better. And even the difficult parts of what I'm experiencing right now are also for my good. So I'm surrounded behind and before and all around, past, present, and future, with good from the Lord. How can I be indignant? Here's another one after that. The Lord is able and willing to help me fully in all ways that I need. You have to believe that. The Lord is able and willing to help me fully in all ways that I need. Lots of different passages of scripture that come to mind here. The Bible often talks about God's strong hand and His mighty arm, His outstretched arm, different phrases like that. Psalm 98, His strong hand and His mighty arm have worked salvation for Him. So, sing to the Lord for He's done marvelous things. The Psalms teach us to sing. Partly because, and they command us to sing, partly because we don't want to naturally, partly because we're looking at the world and our own lives wrongly with all these wrong sinful thoughts and assumptions, right? But if we look at the world correctly and we see what the Lord has done from Scripture, we ought to hardly be able to contain ourselves from having a joyful spirit and singing, whether out loud or in our hearts, right? Sing to the Lord. He's done marvelous things. Psalm 121, I quote it there in full. I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. He made everything, right? What's the limit to His power? Nothing. That's part of the point there, right? He will not let your foot be moved. He who keeps you will not slumber. He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. So there's no time at which the Lord's not paying attention, right? There's no limit to his jurisdiction. There's no limit to his, you could say, concentration or attention. The Lord is your keeper. The Lord is your shade at your right hand. Personal, all the way down to me. at my right hand, if I'm in Christ, and a believer. It's not just a global, cosmic, somewhere out there, taking care of big things. Leadership, it's all the way down to each of us, right? The sun shall not strike you by night, nor the moon by night. And again, read this passage in the context of all of scripture, the Bible's not saying anything bad will happen to you, right? Along the way. What it's saying is the Lord will preserve you through anything difficult that happens to you. And that the ultimate outcome will be that you don't stumble and fall. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth forevermore. The point again is comprehensiveness, right? You're going out and you're coming in, that's a way of saying everything, all times, all activities. From this time forth and forevermore is, again, all times, right? I just read this recently to a neighbor of ours in the hospital, was suddenly diagnosed with colon cancer, went in for surgery, they found that it's metastasized and spread. That's a difficult circumstance. never really been sick before, and all of a sudden he has a whole lot of things going on, and you say to him, Jack, you're a Christian. The Lord is taking care of you. The Lord is able and willing to help me fully in all the ways that I need. Fatalism isn't true. And cringing before the Lord expecting bad things isn't true. It's false. It's a lie of Satan. I need to cleanse my thoughts of these sinful ways of thinking and replace them with truths like these from scripture. Say it out loud if you have to. Say it in your head over and over if you can't say it out loud. The Lord is able and willing to help me in every way that I need. There's not a limit. There's not an area that he's unable to help with. It's not that he can only do a bit and then you have to do the rest. Every single way that you need, he's fully able and willing to help you, and that's why we call upon him. Well, a few more here. I can do everything that the Lord calls me to do today. Nothing more, nothing less. This is particularly for people who put a lot of burden on themselves or for people who aren't able at a given time. You're sick, you're injured, Circumstances are keeping you from being able to do what you think you really need to do. You're separated by a great distance from relatives who need help, and you can't be there. It's not up to me. I'm not isolated. I don't need to be fatalistic. I don't need to despair. The Lord will enable me to do everything that He intends for me to do today. I just need to seek to follow Him. If I'm not supposed to get up and take care of this or that for my children, because I have a high-grade fever, then I'm not supposed to get up to do this or that for my children. I can't. I would, but I can't, and so therefore, it's not intended for me, right? Different scriptures that go in that regard. One I didn't put here, but Ephesians 2, verse 10, about, The Lord has planned, from before the creation of the world, planned good works for us to walk in. That's what we have to do each day, is walk in those pre-planned forms of obedience that the Lord has for us. And that's all. Everything else the Lord will have to do in some other way by one of his other servants or by his own direct hand. Right? And he knows that. That's why he planned it, right? So I can content myself, quiet myself. Pastor Hollister's been talking a lot about, he's talked before about a weaned child with its mother. He talked recently about a trained or broken horse. It's not crazy and out of control, but able to be guided and calm, right? Philippians 4, I know how to be brought low, I know how to abound in any and every circumstance. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. 1 Corinthians 10, such a crucial passage, no temptation has taken me except what is common to man. But God is faithful who, along with the temptation, will also provide a way to escape that you may be able to bear it. So I can't ever say, well, I probably should have put that one under a different category. My circumstances made me do it. No, they didn't. The Lord, along with whatever difficult circumstances you have, and they may be really difficult, also gives you a way to escape temptation and live before him obediently. And so, again, the problem is that I didn't want that escape if I didn't escape, right? The problem is my stubbornness, my sin, the allure of sin, whatever it is. Finally, in a sort of catch-all way, the Lord is wise, loving, and does all things well. Just tell yourself that. You know, the world seems out of control to you, right? How can there be so much suffering? How can there be this much chaos? Why would he plan it this way? Well, I don't know, a lot of times. But that basic confession is very clear over and over in scripture. The Lord is wise, loving, and does all things well. And if nothing else, I just tell myself that. And how can I despair? How can I be cast down, oh my soul? Why are you at turmoil within me? Hope in the Lord. The Lord is wise, loving, and does all things well. The benediction, not benediction, the doxology in Romans 11, I quote there, so rich. Depths of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways. That means something very important. That means we can't understand it all. You need to be reminded of that, right? There is no way for me as a finite creature to understand everything that the Lord is doing. His ways are unsearchable. But, along with that, you see the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God. For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor, or who's given a gift to him that he might be repaid? From him and through him and to him are all things to him be glory forever. 1 Corinthians 2 speaks similarly about God's exalted wisdom that is above ours. Isaiah 57, about how God inhabits eternity, but he also delights to dwell with the lowly and the contrite. And that's really what we want to be, right? I want to be frustrated, annoyed, fatalistic, filled with worry, despairing, isolated. I want to be living in the Lord's blessing and fulfillment. The way to do that ultimately is to be lowly and contrite in heart and to speak to ourselves truly, accurately from Scripture. You say these things to yourselves, brothers and sisters, catch yourself, you know, kindly, lovingly point out to a loved one if they're saying that, you know, this is ridiculous. maybe not right that second, maybe a few minutes later or something, right? I say, you know, let's reflect on this together. We all need to. Tell ourselves what's true. The Lord will take care of me and bring about good purposes in my life. My Heavenly Father loves me, has designed testing and suffering for my good, right? The source of my temptation lies in myself and not my circumstances or the Lord. I can't blame others. But what I really deserve is entirely different than what I'm actually getting from the Lord. The Lord's able and willing to help me in all the ways that I need. I can do everything that the Lord calls me to do today by His strength. Nothing more, nothing less. And the Lord is wise, loving, and does all things well. So, lots of ingredients in our thought life for joy, peace, and hope. So it's just an example of ways that I think we need to scrutinize our natural tendencies, listen to yourself in that sense, listen to yourself enough to hear what you're actually saying and notice that it's sinful and mortify it, and then actively, purposely, consciously dwell on scripture and truths from scripture that counteract those sinful thoughts. Any questions or comments? We're pretty well over time, but they're doing pretty well vestibule. The Bible uses athletic imagery to talk about the Christian life a lot, and that passage from Hebrews 12 is one of them. He's training us in righteousness through what's difficult. You know, it really would be a lot easier if we could all just walk by sight and not by faith. That's sort of, in a sense, based on what I see. And the Bible says, no, that's not the way the Lord has designed this. Tell yourself what's actually true, regardless of what it might seem to you at the time, and cultivate that good, thoughtful, life of dependence and gratitude towards the Lord. Let's pray and we'll dismiss. Father in heaven, we are grateful to you because we have so many reasons to be. We thank you for how you surround us with your love. We thank you especially that your word is so abundantly clear. There are many, many other passages of scripture besides these that can help guide us. We pray that you would help us to die to our sinful flesh and its natural thoughts and be renewed after Christ's image and Be refreshed in this we pray that you would encourage us. We pray that you would help us to learn these things Lord We commit ourselves to you and ask that you would make our efforts to do this sort of thing successful by your grace because of what Christ has done first for us. We pray this in his name