I love it when my day goes great!
I… jump out of bed
when my alarm clock beeps and stay ahead of schedule all day
…get all the meals
made on time
…the horses greet me
at the gate
… play all the right
notes on my piano piece
…the vehicle starts
like a charm,
…and the cows graze contentedly
in the pasture.
Those are the days I feel happy and am so glad to be
alive! I’m fooled into believing this is
joy—a feeling one has when everything is going fine!
Now, what about the
days when:
I …hit the snooze
button, wake up late, and run behind on everything I had planned
…burn the meal because
I had the heat cranked up to make it cook a little faster
…the horses high tail
it to the other end of the pasture when I rattle the gate chain
…I end my piano piece
on the wrong note, making myself and any musical ear cringe
…the battery’s dead on
the vehicle I was going to drive because somebody left the door ajar
…and the cows walked
the creek and are running down the road for the second time this week!
Those are the days joy seems like a faint memory and an impossible
attitude to embrace in the midst of my stressed, chaotic, and frustrating day!
How can one have joy when everything seems to be going wrong? When life takes a turn for the worse? What if
it looks like life is going to be rough for a while? God has helped me to realize that joy doesn’t
come from people, things, or circumstances.
It comes from God! So that means
joy doesn’t come from one’s family, friends, spouse, money, pets, car, the
weather, holidays, etc. When God
frustrates every source of joy, it is then we are forced to seek out joy in what
should have been our only source: God, the only real lasting joy you’ll ever
find. Habakkuk 3:18 (NLT) says,
“Yet I will rejoice in the Lord! I will be joyful in the God of my salvation!”
Now for you to fully
understand the significance of this verse you must read the one before it:
“Even though the fig trees have no blossoms,
and there are no grapes on the vines, even though the olive crop fails, and the
fields lie empty and barren; even though the flocks die in the fields, and the
cattle barns are empty.”
Now do you
see? After explaining what would be a gardener,
farmer, or rancher’s worst nightmare, Habakkuk challenges his readers to
rejoice in the Lord. How is that possible?! God is the giver of joy. We just have to ask for and choose to have
joy.
Stop worrying and start praying.
Stop complaining, start thanking.
Stop pouting, start praising.
When you stop to consider who God is and his greatness, the
bleakness of any circumstance fades in the brilliance of God’s glory. Choose joy, God’s joy!
“Rejoice in the Lord
always and again I say, Rejoice.”
Philippians 4:4
“Thou wilt show me the
path of life: in Thy presence is fullness of joy; at Thy right hand there are
pleasures for evermore.” Psalm 16:11
“Rejoice the soul of
thy servant: for unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.” Psalm 86:4
