DEJECTED PIGEON

Nehemiah 8:10…. Don’t be dejected and sad, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.

As I looked out the window I saw the most depressed, dejected looking pigeon you’ve ever seen. He stood for ages on our grass, absolutely still, in the pouring rain, water running down his little body, with all his feathers soaked and sticking to him. He looked so sad but he didn’t seem to have the common sense to go and find shelter out the rain! He was a true bird brain but I felt so sorry for him!🙂

I wonder if we too can be a bit like my pigeon? Do we feel a bit dejected and depressed sometimes but still do the same things, wondering why we don’t have different results! We don’t come in out of the rain as it were, but still watch the same depressing programmes or disheartening internet articles and then wonder why we come away feeling low. I know someone who does that and they realise it makes them disgruntled but they keep doing it!

Do you think the Lord is telling us to do things differently, to maybe turn some programmes off, or not spend so much time with that person who does nothing but complain or run everybody down? The Lord has said His joy will be our strength but if we keep doing things that drain our joy we’ll find it hard to be strong!

Philippians 4:8 tells us to fix our thoughts on what is true, and honourable and right, and pure, and lovely and admirable, things that are excellent and worthy of praise. God is very specific in His commands! Could we do a spot check sometime and see if we need to change anything if it’s not in line with that instruction? 

It seems to come back to guarding our minds again and I know it helps me if I deliberately seek to put things in my head that are uplifting, or encourage me in my faith. I have to work at it though, and I expect you do too, but we don’t want to be a depressed pigeon!🤣 Thankfully, God has given us a spirit of power and of love and a sound mind but we need to feed it the right thing.

I know we have to be aware of what’s going on in the world but we can ask the Lord to help us keep it in balance. I hope my dejected pigeon story helps us all to ‘come in out of the rain’ when we can, and not give the enemy any opportunity to pull us down by what we see and hear, but let the joy of the Lord once again be our strength.🙂

Photo by Sneha Cecil on Unsplash