Beloved of the Lord Pam Thum sings a song called life is hard (God is good). Listen to these words, you turn the key. Then close the door behind you, drop your bags on the floor, you reach for the light but there's darkness deep inside. And you can't take it anymore. Cause sometimes living takes the life out of you
And sometimes living is all you can do. Life is hard, the world is cold
We're barely young and then we're old. But every falling tear is always understood
Life is hard, but God is good.

This man Jeremiah has seen and gone through great trouble. His health is wrecked because he is concerned for Jerusalem. I’m a target for God’s arrows.

Listen to Jeremiah's expression of sorrow and grief, which begins from the depth of depression and despair. He begins with hopelessness, and hopelessness is always the connection behind depression. Depression is the loss of hope, no way out, and nothing I can do. And hopelessness always leads to depression. Listen to Jeremiah's hopelessness and anguish from verses 1 through 20 of Chapter 3 in the CEV version “I have suffered much because God was angry. He chased me into a dark place, where no light could enter. I am the only one he punishes over and over again, without ever stopping. God caused my skin and flesh to waste away, and he crushed my bones. He attacked and surrounded me with hardships and trouble; he forced me to sit in the dark like someone long dead. God built a fence around me that I cannot climb over, and he chained me down. Even when I shouted and prayed for help, he refused to listen. God put big rocks in my way and made me follow a crooked path. God was like a bear or a lion waiting in ambush for me; he dragged me from the road, then ripped me to pieces. God took careful aim and shot his arrows, straight through my heart. I am a joke to everyone— no one ever stops making fun of me. God has turned my life bitter. He made me eat gravel and polished me in the dirt. I cannot find peace or remember happiness. I tell myself, "I am finished! I can't count on the LORD to do anything for me. Just thinking of my troubles and my isolated wandering makes me despondent. That's all I ever think about, and I am depressed.

Boy, that is about as low as you can get. Have you ever felt that way? God, where are you? God isn’t ready to help me, now in the midst of this place of total despair, he said BUT, This I recall to my mind, and therefore I have hope. He changed his whole mindset because of the conjunction but. You remember the school House Rock cartoon of Saturday morning, Conjunction, junction what’s your function, hooking up words and phrases and clauses. God is getting ready to hook up Jeremiah's mind to God’s faithfulness. The Bible speaks about our renewing our minds.

The Bible speaks about our bringing every thought into captivity unto the obedience of Jesus Christ. And we can think ourselves into a miserable mood. We can think ourselves into despair and hopelessness. You can think yourself into the grave. Or, by setting your mind upon the Lord, renewing your mind in Him, you can come into a whole new state of consciousness. No longer one of total despair and hopelessness, but one now of victory and hope.

And that’s what Jeremiah did. He changed the thought patterns from, "Oh, woe is me. Oh, this is the end. Oh, there is no hope. Oh, I’ve had it. Oh, there’s no one to help. Oh, I’m boxed in," to but this I call to mind; therefore, I have hope.

Listen, each of us, has a separation between our ego and our superego, in other words, the real me and the ideal me. Listen you and I see ourselves in an ideal way. "This is what I really am," If everything is all right. It’s only because of these other issues that you see me like this, thi

Have a blessed day, and thanks for listening! Visit my website to learn more at https://www.biblicaltalks.com