And The Improper Response To Gloom Seeps In

This morning, while looking across the field, I saw trees waving in the wind, their shadows bold against bright sun lighted grass. I saw ducks, pheasants, chickens and goats all glazing according to their individual nature. A gorgeous sight it was.
And, came a wave of darkness across the land. Within a matter of seconds, gloom replaced beauty. Even the shadows of the trees faded into the darkness of the world.
Without looking up, I knew that a vast cloud had just taken residence between earth and sun. And I thought, this is what happens to so many Christians. Sin takes anchor and suddenly hinders our joy in Christ.
Thankfully, the cloud moved on and the gloom lifted. Likewise it can be in your Christian life. I did nothing to control the cloud, but when it comes to sin we all have a power to seek forgiveness. I urge now: If sin hinders your joy in Christ, take responsive action.

What Is The Proper Response To Gloom?

Emerge yourself in the Word
Pray.
Rejoice in spite of the gloom.
Give thanks in the face of the gloom.
Seek forgiveness. If not for a known sin, then for an improper response to gloom. In the book of Job, we see a “blameless” man confronted by great gloom and doom. Yet in the last pages of the book, Job says…

“Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.“

If he was blameless, for what is he repenting. Clearly the problem resides in his failure of proper response to gloom. Sometimes we question God, and that is Scripturially fiting. However, it seems that Job went to the point of questioning God’s justice. What did he say?

“I would seek unto God, and unto God would I commit my cause”

Somehow, Job become certain that God had made error in permitting so much pain and gloom into Job’s life. Don’t go there. This is not the proper response to gloom. Question if it seems right, but never doubt that God is rightly in control.