Q & A Archives

These are Questions & Answers posed by ordinary people looking for guidance.  Dr. Judy Baus has thoughtfully answered each person and feels that these responses just might help someone else in their time of need.

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08/03/2008 05:34 PM

Dear Judy,

I am feeling extremely down these weeks, and the economic plight in this country isn’t helping. If I lost my job, I couldn’t pay even one month’s mortgage. Prices for everything are going up, but my salary isn’t. I’m tired of having more bills than income. The gloomy overcast days aren’t helping either. I hate feeling this way. I try to read the Bible but even that seems like mere words to me. I feel like I’m wasting my life away. Any suggestions?

Dear Troubled,

I am assuming that you are a Christian by the statement you made concerning reading the Bible. It is NEVER a waste of time to read the Word of God. It may seem like it at the time, but according to Scripture (and my personal experience), it is not a waste of time:

God said, “…. So shall MY WORD be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what it pleases, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:11).

We can’t go by feelings but only by what is truth. There are two truths: one is a temporal truth such as how you feel now, and the other is eternal which is God’s Word. The eternal truth of the Word never changes, no matter what we think or feel. That is the truth you need to hang on to.

Read the Word of God with this understanding and look at how big your God is compared to your situation. There is no person, situation, or circumstance bigger than the Lord Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit wrote the Bible through people and about real people, places, and events to teach us how to keep going victoriously until our journey here is over. When you read the Bible in this way, it will come alive for you.

You say your wages are not keeping up with the cost of living and I’m sure they aren’t. This is happening all over our country, and world. We are in scary times, but this is the time to rise up and see the bigger picture. When we are born again in Jesus, we are in the world but not OF the world. Jesus said, in the world, we would have tribulation, but that He has overcome the world.

In Mathew 6:25-34, our Lord tells us six different times not to worry. The Apostle Paul says, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God” (Philippians 4:6). Worry is a choice and when we allow worry to consume us, it will turn to anxiety. And “Anxiety in the heart of man causes depression”(Proverbs 12:25). If we do not get worry out at the thought level, it will turn into anxiety, and if we allow that to get into our heart, it will cause depression. The key is to stop negative and disbelieving thoughts and allow only thoughts of how great God is and that He is for your highest good. Determine that no matter what is happening, you will rest on thoughts of His greatness.

We all need someone we can talk to and pray with! But the person we run with, we will be like, so to speak. Find a Christian who reads the Bible, believes the Bible, and obeys the Bible. Talk and pray with one who is in faith and lives out their faith. When you have people like that in your life, they will build you up and want to see you grow in the Lord.

When you understand your purpose and destiny, you can look around and know that this is NOT all there is! Every Christian needs to quit looking at the problem and start calling on the Promises of God. Take this one, for example, on how God sees you:

“ But you are a Chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9).

Instead of looking around at the devastations, look UP and know the Lord is returning soon. And remember that God called you out of darkness and that it is you job to help others out of their darkness and into HIS marvelous light.

I hope this has lifted you out of where you are to where you are suppose to be!