What is good about your life?

Everything?

Nothing?

Hate your lot right now?

How many times do people feel like giving up, overwhelmed with life and it’s problems, only to miss a breakthrough if they just kept going?

As Dori said in Finding Nemo:

“Just keep swimming.”

Or as Winston Churchill said in WW2:

“When you’re going through hell… keep going.”

Noone wants a pep talk when they feel life is awful.

They want compassion.

Sympathy.

Relief.

Saving.

But sometimes you need to save yourself.

How?

Turn to God.

Ask him to rescue you. Back to everyone’s favourite Psalm:

The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
²     He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
³     he refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths
    for his name’s sake.
⁴ Even though I walk
    through the darkest valley,^[a]
I will fear no evil,
    for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
    they comfort me.

PSALM 23:

There is a reason why this Psalm is so popular.

It supplies everything we need when times are tough.

Comfort.

Support.

Salvation.

Don’t believe me?

Try it.

Lean into God.

How to improve your mood?

Think of the good things in your life.

There is nothing?

What about the air that you breath?

Still not enough?

What about swapping lives with someone?

My mother used to tell me off whenever I mentioned my life was lacking something:

“Some people have NOTHING!!!”

This was true but did not make me feel grateful.

Now it does.

How about swapping lives with a cancer ward patient?

A woman in Afghanistan?

Still not enough to help you feel a smidgen better?

The only thing left to do is pray.

FATHER GOD HELP US TO COPE WHEN LIFE IS OVERWHELMING AND SADNESS IS ALL CONSUMING. SHOW US HOW TO TURN TO YOU AND RELY ON YOUR STRENGTH AND THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. IN JESUS MIGHTY NAME WE PRAY. AMEN