Downcast & Discouraged

Anyone can get discouraged and downcast. I read a couple of Psalms 41-43 today and it is encouraging to know that king David or the Psalmist did not experience sunny days all the time. They were also downcast but they cast their souls unto God their Saviour. They called to their souls to take heart and rejoice under the bleakest circumstances. I actually have a couple of good days. Great fellowship in church yesterday and I was asked to say the prayer in response to the sermon by the preacher. I was taken by surprise but prayed a heartfelt prayer that I believed bless the preacher and the congregation. Then this morning I chanced upon an elder of the church whom I had lunch fellowship yesterday though we did not talk in church because I was seated next to the preacher, a fellow pastor and a good friend. So this morning we talked for an hour about many things and we encouraged one another.

He was a top civil servant and retired a few years ago but now hugely experienced and full of wisdom and I enjoyed his preaching a fortnight ago. But then I realised past 60 although it is just a number, I had to look after my health a lot better and eat healthy. I started to cook for myself more now at home since I have time on my hand with no direct responsibility. Preaching invitations are scheduled next month two weeks in a row but I have about five weeks to write my books. Yes, books in the plural because I started commenting on John's Gospel a few days ago with my first project unfinished though I had written more than 50,000 words. 

This morning somewhat my Singaporean friend's review came to my feed on my phone and I re-read his review and my spirit was lifted once more. In fact, the English version was inspired by the Lord I truly believed - my publishers who never published Christian books took on my project when he read the first few chapters and asked me for more mission photos. Initially, I gave him only about 20 and we ended with more than 60 photos in Departure Points. This time it could be more than 100 as the Malay-reading audience probably preferred more images and photos and a picture tells a thousand words.