Good cold morning! BRRRrrrrrr! What do we expect? It is December after all! haha! Anyways, our happiness is dependant on God and it comes from within. "You deserve to be happy" is commonly said. So if that is true, where does that come from? Can someone else provide happiness? Sure but are they the only source of happiness? No way man! Example, from my view, I am extremely happy. I have a job, a wonderful bride, dogs that make me laugh, kids and grand kids that are a huge source of joy, on and on I can go. Those things make me happy and they also can make me sad, can you relate? With that said, when they make me sad, am I no longer happy? Am I no longer joyless? No and no! We can be unhappy with a situation but remain happy. Sometimes piddles on floors, arguments, bills, lack of closeness have an effect on our momentary happiness but if we dwell on them and let those things permeate our thoughts we can loose that deep seated joy that God provided when we came to know him as savior. We've talked about this before. Junk happens in this world and we should not despair because things are not the way we think they should be. The father of lies loves to pull you down to an ineffective role. He would love to destroy you. We cannot allow things and events to drag us down into despair. Pray quick. Ask questions. Seek God in all things. And for heavens sake if you have a problem with someone close, speak in love to reach solutions instead of stewing and deepening the hurt. Repent or in the Greek, "metanoeo" means to change your mind and that is what we need to do. No one can steal our joy unless we let them. We repented from our old ways and by the Word we are forgiven and all is forgotten. God sees us with his son and wants us to grow into the likeness of his son who happened to have 100% confidence in the Father to always be with and in us. Gee whiz, we can get any better joy than that! Read these below and remember your inexpressible joy at meeting the Father when you repented and accepted Christ. Nothing else can defeat that joy unless we focus on the malady instead of the healer.
1 Peter 1:3-9
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade-kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith-of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire-may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
NIV
Heavenly Father,
We ask today Lord that you bring to our minds the joy of your love. Help us not see a mountain but a hill that you have already conquered. Lord we tend to be selfish and cry "woe is me" and we are sorry for that. We know that you have us in your hands and we keep jumping out. We repent of that and ask for your grip on us to be tighter for we know you have the only answers. Lord, we love and honor you and ask for that joy we had in the beginning to be present all the time. Grant us wisdom in Jesus name, amen
No comments:
Post a Comment