“A Penny for Your Thoughts” Philippians 4:8
“Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest,whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” When we see people deep in thought, we sometimes say to them, “a penny for your thoughts.” This means that we would like to know what they are thinking. What if you took somebody up on that and took a penny for your thoughts? Would your thoughts be worth a penny? Our lives are built around what we think about, and what we think about as a general rule will decide our actions. Paul had some good advice for Thessalonian Christians. He gave a list of important things that should occupy our minds. First, he wrote that if something is true we should think about it, wrap our minds around it. Conversely if something is false, we need to erase it from our minds. Lies get spread around, even in the Christian community, when we are not careful to weigh the truth of what we are talking and thinking about. Second, we need to think about the things that are honest. Honesty and truth are almost twins. We all like to think that our thoughts are mainly honest. Are we being honest when we think about, for example how to cut corners on our taxes? Third, he wrote that we are to think about justice. To think about justice is to think about being fair with people. This goes into how we treat people. Is it just to “give a piece of our mind” to, for example, a cashier in the grocery store? Do we go out of our way to be obnoxious because we know that we can get by with it? However, our Christian witness doesn’t “get by with it.” Fourth, we are to think about things that are pure. If we are honest with ourselves, we will have to confess that a lot of impure thoughts can go through our minds in a day’s time. There are many opportunities to think impure thoughts today. We get hit from every side with pictures that would lead our minds to impure thoughts if we were not careful. Fifth, he wrote that we should think about things that are lovely, and of a good report. There are a lot ugly things out there today that seek to bring our minds into obedience to them. If something is lovely, think about it. I have put “lovely” and “good report” together. Isn’t this what gossip is: taking that which is ugly and reporting on it? Has anyone ever called you to say, “I saw john Doe do a good thing today"? Someone might make a call like this, but for the most part we miss the good report. People do not generally run to their phones and call people about the lovely things that they see. An evil report seems to dominate our media. Just take a quick look at the headlines on magazine covers. Most of the time they are ugly and will get someone in trouble. If something is virtuous or praiseworthy, we need to highlight that and report it to the people. I know that all things can’t meet the test of the virtues of this passage. There will be negative things. When this is true, we need to contact the people involved and speak with them, not everybody but them. Another good idea is to keep those thoughts to ourselves – in other words, keep our mouths shut, our pens still, and our telephones on the hook. A penny for your thoughts! :-) Bro. Joe
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“36. As it is written, For thy name’s sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. 37. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.” What is a victorious Christian? He or she is not the stereotype that is usually shown in the media. “The Church Lady” who was seen on Saturday Night Live for several years, and portrayed by Dana Cawvey, is the stereotype. She was a snotty, snooty, sniffling lady who obviously looked down her nose at anyone who did not share her version of the faith. The sketches that I saw were genuinely funny, and really captured the spirit of the “church ladies” of the world. Fortunately, these “church ladies” do not represent those who are living victoriously in Christ. I think that a victorious Christian is every bit as sure of his or her faith as Cawvey’s “church lady,” but without the self-righteous attitude. A victorious Christian is sure of his or her salvation. They believe what the New Testament says about Christ, that “He came to seek and to save that which was lost.” Further, that He died on the cross, arose from the tomb and ascended to the Father in order to achieve salvation for the lost. This is the basic Christian gospel, centered in the person of Jesus Christ and on the fact that He did what needed to be done to save us. I don’t know how the world defines a victorious Christian, but the Biblical definition is that one has put his or her faith in Jesus Christ – period. Jesus is the means of salvation for everyone who claims to be a Christian. One is not saved because he or she is a Baptist, Methodist, Episcopalian, Church of God, Presbyterian or any other structure that represents Jesus on this earth. Ephesians 2:8 tells us that we are “saved by grace through faith, not of works lest anyone should boast.” We come to God by faith in Jesus Christ – period. Not because we read the right literature or say just the right things. There are other aspects to this, but this suffices to show Who gives us the victory and makes us more than conquerors. Further, I think that the victorious Christian is one who has accepted the forgiveness of Christ and has followed suit by forgiving those that he or she needs to forgive. We cannot live victoriously for Christ if we are not willing to forgive others. What I mean by that is that we really have forgiven them, and do not hold secret hostility in our hearts. We forgive others, “even as God, for Christ’s sake has forgiven us.” My idea is that if God can forgive me, I certainly have to forgive others. This is not easy, but it is Christian. Another aspect of this is the fellowship that we have with fellow Christians. I don’t understand how one can be a victorious Christian and ignore the important element of Christian fellowship. (I’m not advocating that one has to be a member of a church to be saved, but why would one want to be?) We help each other to better live the Christian life. I can understand why one would fall out with a particular church, but certainly not with the whole concept. If you are shunning fellowship with fellow Christians, you are crippling your own witness to the world. Jesus told His first disciples: “By this shall all people know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” This love reaches beyond the church into the world. A victorious Christian loves all people whether they agree with Him or her or not. I will just point out that Bible study and prayer are part of a victorious Christian’s life.This has been a weak attempt to help you see that the victorious Christian is not a sneering hypocrite, but is a loving follower of Jesus Christ. Actually, all of those who are really Christians, by faith in Christ, are victorious Christians. Go out into the world and live victoriously. Rejoice in the eternal faith!!!! Bro. Joe "But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear..."
There are millions of people out there who have rejected the Christian faith out of hand. One reason is that it puts restrictions on what we can do. We like to think that we are free to do whatever we want whenever we want. Well, for example, we’ve had a sexual revolution. How has that worked for us? What the “cool” people didn’t tell us was there are all kinds of sexually transmitted diseases out there, and one of the worst is AIDS. Sin brings its own judgment, and sexual sins have certainly brought their own judgment. This is an example that if left to our own devices, we human beings will make a big mess. Just ask Adam and Eve. Another reason people reject the Christian faith is that many think that the whole basis for the Christian faith is based on a lie. The apostles, and other early Christians, taught that Jesus arose from the grave. Those who doubt the veracity of the Christian faith, say the apostles lied about the resurrection. The story goes like this: Jesus was not resurrected and the early apostles hid the body. Another story goes like this: Jesus survived the grave but He went on to live a “civilian” life, married to Mary Magdalene. I would really feel like a fool if I believed either of those tales. Let’s look at some good old-fashioned human logic on this matter. We would have to believe that Peter, Andrew, James and John knew that Jesus didn’t survive, so they wove an elaborate tale about the resurrection of Jesus. Are we to think that these men were stupid enough to keep a lie going after the authorities began to persecute the “church”? (If Christ is still dead, “church” would be the correct word.) Then there is Saul of Tarsus. He hated Christian people and wanted to either kill them or put them in Jail. After he encountered Jesus on the Damascus Road, he became a follower of Jesus and eventually gave his life for his faith in Christ. He must have really been stupid to write all of those letters to churches about the reality of Christ, although his life was under threat everyday for it. All of these men were people who lived in history, whose paths crossed with Jesus and whose lives were changed by Him. We have to accept them as either, charlatans, dupes, or both, or as people whose lives were genuinely changed by Jesus of Nazareth. Finally, the fact that there are still Christian churches around the world is proof of the reality of the risen Christ. The world has tried to stamp Christ' Church out since its inception. From the human perspective, there should not be an extant church in the entire world. The enemies of churches have tried to kill them, but that’s not all. Christians have not tried to kill it, but our actions in history have sometimes revealed bad missteps in the cause of the Risen Christ that caused harm to His work.. The “Crusades” are not as bad as unbelievers paint them, but these military crusades in the name of Jesus, prove that we can do some stupid things that bring harm to our own cause. That’s right, the fact that Christ’s Church has survived us proves that Jesus is still alive. Jesus told His disciples that the “gates of hell” would not prevail against His Church (His people). Satan has been unable to kill Christian work around the world. The skeptics have been unable as well. We stand on pretty solid ground with Jesus. Give some thought to your faith!!!!!!! Bro. Joe “If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men (people). 19.Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.”
People who don’t try to live at peace with other people, and who seek to avenge themselves, as a general rule have their “noses out of joint.” What do I mean by that? I mean that they are thin-skinned and carry a chip on their shoulders. These are the people who are the hardest to be around, because you always have to watch what you say or do around them, lest you hurt their feelings. I do not consider myself one of these people, but I must admit that there are times when my “nose is out of joint.” Those are the times that I really don’t like myself very much. The only problem is that I can’t get away from myself. I feel like this when I feel that I have been treated unfairly. (Another word for it is self-pity.) Then I try to remember that my feelings can be hurt only if I allow them to be hurt. Even if I feel that someone is intentionally trying to hurt my feelings, it is still the same. The responsibility to remember that I am a Christian is on me, not on an antagonist. These times are rare in my life, but when they come I have to do a lot of praying to get myself back on target. Unfortunately, we are living in a time when people get their feelings hurt easily, and they won’t hesitate to tell you. We have to watch what we say about anything, lest we say something politically incorrect and inadvertently hurt someone’s feelings. I think that we are not better people for it. I’m thinking right now of Jesus. All He ever did while on earth was to help people. He healed the sick and the lame, (Excuse me, I should have written medically impaired). He taught people to love one another and to “bear with” one another. He even taught that if someone hits you on the right side of your face, turn the other cheek and let them hit the left side. It’s funny that when we mention that in public, especially to a group of men, we say “in a pig’s eye.” (I don’t mean to demean pigs here, nor would I want to hurt one, except to barbecue it.)He taught that we should treat others as we want to be treated. It’s called the “Golden Rule.” Jesus didn’t call it that, but we do. If we would follow the Golden Rule, maybe even the thinnest of skins would not be punctured. Whatever the case, all that Jesus ever did was to love and help people. The only group of people that He really got angry with were the thin-skinned, self-righteous Pharisees. I think that He only talked negatively to them in order to try and help them to get over themselves. Yet after all of the good that He did, the crowds that seemed to love and adore Him, turned on Him when He turned out not to be what they thought He should be, and they put Him on a cross. What were His first words from that cross? Let me see, did He say, “this is not fair”? No. Did He say, “why are you doing this to me, I haven’t hurt any of you”? No. Did He say, “I’ll get you for this”? No. What He said was, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.” If anybody ever had a right to get His “nose out of joint,” it was Jesus. But He didn’t. He forgave. I know that we are not Jesus, but it wouldn’t hurt us to remember His example when our feelings are hurt and we want to retaliate. I know that when I don’t give in to my worst self and get my “nose out of joint,” I feel better about myself. In fact, when any of us overcome this tendency, we are just being downright Christ like. Try it! Bro. Joe “Pray without ceasing…”
Paul always stressed the importance of prayer. In this verse, he wrote that we should pray without ceasing.” He did not mean that we should isolate ourselves all of the time and pray. What he meant was that we can and need to stay in an attitude of prayer all of the time. We can pray at any time and in any place. We do need to set aside certain times of concentrated prayer where we are alone with God. This can help begin, and or, end our day in good spirits. But we need to remember that Jesus never slumbers; He is never unaware of us. Therefore, we can consult Him any time and at any place. For example, I talk to God while I drive. (In fact, when I’m driving on I75, do a lot of praying.)It would do you good to learn to just talk to Jesus whenever you want to or need to. He wants you to do that.One thing that we need to remember about prayer is that it is not a magic formula. We do not talk to Jesus and say some magic words and“poof” we have what we want. 1 John 5:14-15 clarifies this for us: “And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, he heareth us. 15. And if we know that He hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him.” God answers us according to His will for us. Why would we want anything that was out of His will to begin with? I once talked with a woman in her forties who was dying of cancer. In the course of our conversation she told that she was mad with God. I asked her why she was mad with God. She said that when she was ten years old, she asked God for a bicycle and He did not give it to her. I hope that our talk helped her get over this. I would hate to think that she went into eternity mad with God over such a trivial matter. I think sometimes that we mistake Jesus for the “good fairy” who waves a magic wand and gives us what we want. He knows whatwe need and what we want might not be what we need. If we ask God for something and don’t get it, it means that He has something better for us. Do we think so little of Jesus that we think that He cannot say “no” to us? I have found in my life that when I don’t get exactly what I ask for, I get what He wants and my life is better for it. When we pray in faith, we should not be seeking what we want but what He wants. Have faith in Jesus that He knows what is best for you. Prayer is not just asking God for things. It is our means of fellowship with Him. Some of my greatest times of prayer have been when I just sat, or laid, silently and meditated on Him. This is when I can hear Him in my heart and mind and discover what He wants from me. What Jesus wants from me is much more important than what I want from Him. Sometimes we need to just reflect on God and think about who He is and what He means to us. I find that this time of prayerful reflection helps me to gain a greater love and appreciation for who and what He is in my life. I think that you will find it the same for you. I challenge you to give this a try and see if Jesus will speak to your heart and mind. It is a wonderful experience. I have heard people say that they have given up on prayer, because God never answered them. He answered, but they missed it because they were looking for what they wanted instead of what He wanted. To give up on prayer is to give up on God. It is not wise to do that. Take Paul’s advice and“pray without ceasing.” Bro. Jod “I am the door; by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out and find pasture.”
A door can be an entrance or an exit. Jesus referred to Himself as “the door.” Through Him we can enter into some good things and exit from some bad things. For example, Jesus said in verse 10b: “I am come that they might have life and have it more abundantly.” Jesus is the door to the abundant life. This is not necessarily speaking of material abundance, but it is speaking about spiritual abundance. It is the abundance of well-being. I can’t speak for anyone else, but the presence of Jesus in my life gives me a great sense of well-being. Looking at the direction of the world today, if I went into the world’s door, I might have a nervous breakdown. It is the abundance of great fellowship. When we enter the Jesus door, we enter into daily fellowship with God. He has promised His presence every day that we live. There is never a time in our lives, once we enter the Jesus door that we are not in fellowship with God. This leads us to the door of prayer. When Jesus died on the cross, the veil of the temple was torn in two. This means that the door to the “holy of holies” is open to us twenty four hours a day. We can talk to Him about our troubles, and we can take our petitions to Him. In fact, He invites us pray, to ask. He wants to provide for us through prayer. This abundance is available only to those who enter by the Jesus door. It is the door to fellowship with other Christians. He saved us individually, but He saved us to be in relationship with fellow Christians. We can, and should, find joy in this fellowship. It is good to know that we are not alone in this sometimes hostile world. The abundant life that we enter into by going through the Jesus door is only available through Him. Jesus said that when we enter His door, we “go in and out and find pasture.” We depend on Him for sustenance just as sheep depend on the shepherd for sustenance. It is the abundance of power. I do not mean the kind of power that the world gives, but the power that He gives us through the Holy Spirit. Jesus promised His disciples in Acts 1:8 that they would receive the power of the Holy Spirit. That power was to be used as witnesses to the people of the whole world. That power is also available to help us overcome the world. We need the abundance of the Spirit’s help to live the Christian life. If we tried to go it alone, we would surely fail. Satan’s temptations are too great for us, but not for Jesus. Every time the devil and his demons confronted Jesus, Jesus won. They were no match with Him. Through the Holy Spirit, we can sic Jesus on him and defeat him. It is the power to overcome ourselves. Dwight L. Moody once intimated that the main person that he had trouble with was himself. We can be our own worst enemies, but the abundant power of the Holy Spirit can help us overcome even our worst selves. It is the door to an optimistic, loving approach to life. Paul wrote about the “fruit of the Spirit” in Galatians 5:22-23: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” Paul added in verse 24: “And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.” This quality of life is available only to those who enter by the Jesus door. I mentioned that a door is also an exit. When we enter the Jesus door, we exit all of the negativity that can be in our lives – all of the things that are opposite of Galatians 5:22-23. When we feel separated from Jesus, we need to remember that we have entered His door, and life does not have to be that way. Come into the door that is Jesus, and only He can open it for you. Bro. Joe “And Saul was consenting unto his (Stephen's) death. On that day a severe persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout the land of Judea and Samaria.”
“That day” referred to here is the stoning of Stephen. After Stephen’s death, the persecution of Christians really picked up. But something good came out of this persecution. People, who had been converted on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2-3, and after, were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. Until that point all of the action of the church had taken place in Jerusalem, but now the action was spreading. This fulfilled what Jesus told His disciples in Acts 1:8: “But you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the uttermost part of the earth.” I’m sure that when Jesus gave them that charge that they did not know how it would be carried out. Here is what I really want us to see in this text: Persecution did not kill the church, rather it scattered the church and it began a movement that would be worldwide in a few short years. Let’s go back and look at something that happened as Stephen was stoned: "They laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul." Then we are told that Saul was “consenting unto (Stephen’s) death.” Who would have thought that in a short time this persecutor of the church would be a part of it and be one of the main characters in carrying out Acts 1:8. God does, indeed, work in mysterious ways. If we had planned it, it would not have been like this. We would have appointed committees and discussed being “witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the uttermost part of the earth” to death. We would ask, “Exactly what did Jesus mean and how can we plan this thing out to everybody’s satisfaction?" This is not how God did it. He used the stoning of Stephen as the catalyst for scattering His church beyond Jerusalem; then, on the Damascus Road, converted Saul and turned him into “the Apostle Paul.” In order for the gospel to reach “the uttermost part of the earth” Gentiles would have to be converted. Again, if we had planned it out, we would have appointed committees, asked for resumes of good Gentile Christians, discussed it to death and come up with someone to witness to the Gentiles. This is not what God did. He found the meanest Jew that He could find, converted him on the Damascus Road, and sent him to witness to the Gentiles. Paul’s witness and the witness of Peter and other apostles enabled the gospel message to reach all the way to Rome and beyond, and as a result, carried out Jesus’ command. What lessons can we derive from this? First, we can understand that bad things that happen to us can turn out to be used of God for great purposes. Who knows but what some suffering that you have encountered has blessed someone else’s life in ways that you could not have planned out. Second, we can understand that when the Lord gives a command He means it, and He will see that it is carried out. If we didn’t send missionaries into the world, God would see that some were sent anyway. Perhaps, until the stoning of Stephen and the ensuing persecution, converted Jews were reluctant to leave Jerusalem. God had different plans and scattered them to other places. Third, God might want you to “scatter” from where you are in your life today and go and do what He wants you to do. (I’m not necessarily referring to location as much as I am referring to lifestyle.) At least give it some consideration. Bro. Joe "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God..."
A young man heard a sermon by an old preacher on what we call “the original sin.” (This means that we are all sinners because Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden.) He approached the older man and said to him that he could not swallow that old idea about original sin. The preacher replied to him, “Young man, you don’t have to swallow it, it is already in you.” This is true. The Bible teaches that we are all sinners, i.e., none of us can say that we have never sinned. 1 John 1:8 and 10 tell us this about sin: “8. if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 10. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” But the verse that gives us hope is verse 9: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” In other words, we are not hopeless sinners, because God has provided the perfect sacrifice through His Son in order for us to receive forgiveness for sins. In telling other people about Jesus, I have had to deal with this problem of sin. If we say to a person, “You are a sinner,”they will usually misunderstand what we mean. They think that we are saying,“Compared to me, you are a bad, bad person.” They get the idea that we are looking down our noses at them. They accuse us of judging them. But wait, we understand that “all have sinned” means that we have sinned as well. We are not looking down our noses at them; rather we are trying to give them the good news that the same Savior who forgave and forgives us, for our sins will forgive them as well. We are asking people to leave their status as “sinner lost in sin” to “sinner saved by grace.” 1 John, verses 8 and 10, cover the entire situation. Verse 8 tells us that we can never say that we have no sin in our lives. If nothing else, we have pride in the fact that we do not sin. Pride is one of the deadly sins, and the Bible tells us that it “comes before a fall.”Verse 10 tells us that we cannot say that we have never sinned, because we have. If we deny that we have to deal with sin in our lives, we are calling God a liar, because He tells us that we are sinners. Now, I want to be careful about calling anyone a liar, and that especially applies to calling God a liar. To live in this world is to encounter sin, and sin we will. We might not commit adultery or steal something, for example, but we will sin by omission if not by commission. In other words, we can sin by not doing what we should do as well as doing what we should not do. The best thing to do with sin is to seek forgiveness from Jesus by confessing it. Allow me to give a little advice here. If you are witnessing to someone about Jesus, make sure that you qualify that when you say they have sinned, you do not mean that they are bad people and that you are better than they are. If they think this, your witness will fall on deaf ears. If you are being witnessed to and the witness tells you that you are a sinner, keep in mind that he or she is not judging or belittling you, but telling you the first thing that you must do to become a Christian, i.e., confess that you are a sinner. The Bible is not kidding when it says that “all have sinned,” and it illustrates this fact all through the Old and New Testaments. We see the great King David sin with Bathsheba. We see Moses lose his temper and strike the rock. We see Peter, the great apostle, deny His Lord. Indeed, the Bible illustrates Romans 3:23 throughout. The only One to whom this does not apply is God, and the only perfect person who ever lived is Jesus. We just have to deal with sin and the only way to deal with it is given in 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He (Jesus) is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.” Believe it and practice it. Bro, Joe “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; surely I will heal you.”
The title for today’s blog indicates that we will have good days and bad days. This is just the nature of life. I would like to tell you that if you believe in Jesus all of your days will merry, and that you will never have to be worried or upset about anything. The only problem is that we live in the world with everyone else, and we have the same human experiences that they have. There is an incident recorded in Luke 10:38-43 about a visit that Jesus made to home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus. Martha was busy about housework, and probably getting a meal together, while Mary simply sat at Jesus’ feet, worshipping Him and listening to Him. Martha was having a bad day because they had an important guest and she wanted everything to be just right for Him. She became upset with Mary for not helping her out more. She was having one of “them days, when everything’s wrong and nothing is right.” Jesus told her that she was distracted by too many things, and that Mary had chosen the good part, i.e., to spend time with Him. Martha was having a bad day because she did not put her focus on Jesus, but on something less important. I think that this should tell us something about our own bad days. We get distracted by the day’s news. We are worried about what is going on in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, you name it. Believe me, there is plenty out there to distract us and take our focus off of Jesus. Being human, we are just going to have those days, but when we are having them, we need to stop and ask ourselves why nothing seems to be going right? We will find the answer in our own hearts. Remember this: Bad days will come, but they do not have to stay. For example, the context of today’s scripture is about the days when King Hezekiah was “sick unto death.” Hezekiah was not just having a bad day; he was having a bad life. This is when the Lord spoke to the prophet Isaiah and told him to give words of comfort to Hezekiah: “Turn again and tell Hezekiah the captain of my people, Thus saith the Lord, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the Lord.” He was told that he and Israel would be delivered from Assyria, and that he would get well and live fifteen more years. Look at the message that was delivered to the king. First, he was told “I have heard your prayer.” God was not deaf to Hezekiah’s needs, just as He is not deaf to our needs. God/Jesus knows what is going on our lives at any particular time. He knows whether we are having good days or bad days. We should pray and know that He hears us when we pray. We should also know that He answers our prayers. He will see us through the good and the bad!!! Second. God told Hezekiah: “I have seen your tears.” We sometimes think that we are God-forsaken, and that He is not aware of what we are going through. Well, if He saw Hezekiah’s tears, He will see ours as well. Whatever your problem is on any given day, God is aware of it and He sees your tears as well. God is not hard-hearted about what is going on in our lives. What He wants is to minister to our hearts and minds. In order for Him to minister to our hearts and minds, we have to focus our attention on Him. Third, He told Hezekiah: “Surely, I will heal you.” Notice the word “surely.” We can be assured that God will act in our best interests, whatever we are going through. He might want to use a bad day to teach us something, but in the process He will heal us if we put our focus on Him. Life is filled with good days and bad days, but our eternal God is present in all of them and acting on our behalf. Believe it! Bro. Joe “All the days of the afflicted are evil: but he that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast.”
Before I quote the following, I will have to admit that I used to sometimes watch “Hee Haw.” There, I have confessed. The first part of Proverbs 15:15 reminds me of a song that they sang on Hee Haw: “Gloom, despair and agony on me, deep, dark depression, excessive misery. If it weren’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all. Gloom despair and agony on me.” Be honest, have you ever felt like this? The Message interpreted the verse like this: “A miserable heart means a miserable life; a cheerful heart fills the day with a song.” I think that we can choose whether we will be among the afflicted, the miserable, or among those with merry hearts, having a continual feast. I know that there is such a thing as clinical depression that needs treatment, but most of our depression is because of our own negativity. There are just days, however, that we can’t seem to dig out of the pit of misery. I don’t know what really causes those days, but they do come. I think Martin Luther’s wife had the right idea. One day Luther was miserable, his faith lagging, and his wife said to him, “Martin, when did God die?” To which the great reformer responded with something like, “Who said God is dead?” His wife said, “He must be dead, because of the way you are acting.” It is on those miserable days that we forget that God is alive and well, and acting on our behalf. We can give Satan credit for this, because he wants us down and defeated. He knows that when we are miserable, we are not effective witnesses for Jesus Christ. He wants to keep us down by accusing us and making us feel guilty. He wants to keep us down by making us look at God through the wrong end of the binoculars. When we look into the wrong end of binoculars, things seem farther away than they are. During these days of misery, we need to remember that God is always close by. After all, Jesus promised us that He would never leave us nor forsake us. He has even given us His Holy Spirit in order for us to have His presence all of the time. Do we not believe this promise or do we just sometimes forget it? We can also give some credit for our misery to the events in the world around us. It looks like the forces of evil are winning the day. “The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.” The “ne’er do wells” seem to prosper and have no trouble at all. Those who are living sinful lives seem to have no bother at all. To begin with, all of this is not necessarily true. They do not always prosper and they are not always happy. But even if they were always prosperous and happy, it should not make us miserable. The question is often asked in the Bible: “Why do the wicked prosper?” The answer is always that they do not always prosper. It is only when we are right with the God of the Bible that we prosper. By that I mean true prosperity – the joy and fulfillment that only Jesus can give. We need to remember that when we are having one of those miserable days; it does not have to be this way. We have a choice as to whether we will be miserable or “have a party.” That is why we pray. This brings to mind a scripture that I have quoted many times, Philippians 4:6-7: “Be careful for nothing (do not be anxious) but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Know that it does not always seem that simple, but it is. When we invite Jesus into our misery, it should evaporate. It can’t hurt you to try Paul’s method of overcoming misery and anxiety. Bro. Joe |
AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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