22nd July
A man's spirit sustains him in sickness, but a crushed spirit who can bear? A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones. Proverbs 18, 14 ; 17, 22
For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light. Psalm 36, 10
You have made known to me the path of life. Psalm 16, 11
Who will raise a depressed spirit?
The fundamental reference marks of existence are lost. How can this weight which weighs on the conscience be raised? How can it sometimes remove the taste of living? One seeks the lapse of memory in pleasures without a future which only dirts the heart and the spirit.
But God "is good for those who expect him and for the soul which seeks him" (Lamentations 3, 25). By stating this promise, the Bible adds: "There will be a man who will be like a protection against the wind and a shelter against the storm, like water brooks in a dry place, like the shade of a large rock in an arid country" (Isaiah 32, 2). This man is Christ, whom God sent towards us, and who brings the light of life to those who walk in darkness (John 8, 12).
In the middle of the swirl of our society, it remains possible to discover that God who gives life is able to keep our spirit (Job 10, 12). When we get to know Jesus Christ better, he who came to carry our miseries, then we will find strength to take on duties of daily life, while being released of the moral weight of sin. Then faith, hope and love find their major and absolutely inalterable direction.