Savitri Soogrim: August 27, 2007

Keeping Our Strength


"Nehemiah 8:10 - And be not grieved or depressed, for the joy of the Lord is your strength

"Strength -- We all need it to survive in this fast paced world. Even though we have so much "fast services" more than ever available to us to make life easier; we still seem to run out of physical and mental strength so quickly.

Nehemiah lived in the time of Israel's exile under the Persian empire. He had a great burden to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem which was destroyed by the Babylonian empire. When the walls were eventually built; the people gathered together to celebrate. They wept however when they heard the words of the law. It could have been that hearing the words of the law reminded them of their disobedience to God which resulted in their exile. Nehemiah encouraged them to not to grieve and be depressed, for the joy of the Lord is their strength.

The enemy of our souls tries to steal our joy by bringing depression and grief. He targets us by bringing to our remembrance the wrong things we have done in the past and strategically uses the the people closest to us to bring fresh hurts. When we give in to these strategies of Satan he then comes in for the kill. He steals our joy so that we will lose our strength. If we have no strength then we are not able to withstand the evil one.

Let us guard our joy so we can keep our strength!


Savitri Soogrim: August 20, 2007

An Excellent Spirit


"Proverbs 17:27 - He that hath knowledge spareth his words: and a man of understanding is of an excellent spirit.

"A man of understanding is of an excellent spirit". As children of God we are called as well to be of an "excellent spirit". The word excellent refers to being brilliant, outstanding, exceptional and admirable. Both the Amplified and New American Standard versions of this scripture however describe an excellent spirit as having a "cool spirit". The NIV clarifies the term as being "even tempered".

Are we cool or even tempered when faced with adversities? We come across people in our lives everyday; whether it is at work, while commuting, at church, at the grocery or the shopping centers, and even right at home. Sometimes it seems as if, much as we think we're cool, there's always that one person or persons who can aggravate us very easily. We try very hard not to lose our tempers or raise our voices but it seems so difficult to stay totally cool all the time. How then do we fight or overcome this ? The answer is in this very scripture: A man of understanding is of an excellent spirit. Understanding then is the key. If we do not have it we can go to our heavenly Father above and ask Him to fill us with His understanding. May God fill us with His understanding in our endeavor to pursue and possess an excellent spirit!


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