Weekend Words

 (I'm sorry the print/spacing may be a bit hard to read, but I'm still having intermittent problems with my laptop and had to type the post up in pdf form.  Hope you are still blessed by what you read)

From A Year’s Journey with God…

Blocked Goals

I’ve learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances. I’m just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little. I’ve found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty. Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am. (Philippians 4:11-13)

Gerhard Tersteegen lived in the 1700s and gave up life as a successful businessman to live completely alone with God in an isolated cottage. He hoped for a life of solitude in which to find peace for prayer and writing hymns and books. Obviously that was not God’s plan for his life! In 1727 the revival for which Gerhard had earnestly prayed actually broke out, and suddenly people started coming to his hideout in their hundreds, seeking spiritual help. Before long he was giving personal counsel from morning to night and eventually had to move to larger premises to make room for so many visitors. Life had become the very opposite of what he had hoped for, but something he wrote gives us a clue to how he reacted:

Oh take this heart that I would give,

Forever to be all thine own;

I to myself no more would live, -

come, Lord, be Thou my King alone.

God tells us that He has wonderful plans for all our lives (Jeremiah 29:11), but sometimes they are far from the plans we would have chosen! This faces us with a choice: we can either try to manipulate God into changing He ideas, feel resentful and sorry for ourselves, or react as Gerhard did.

From Behold the Lilies…

“...that there be no complaining in our streets. Happy is that people, that is in such a case: yea, happy is that people, whose God is the Lord.” - Psalm 144:14-15

Are you one of the happy people or are you a person who complains? God’s Word has much to say about the common sin of ungratefulness.

The children of Israel complained when they were thirsty and there was no water. They murmured against Moses when the water was bitter and undrinkable. They complained because they grew tired of manna to eat. There were those God punished with death because of this.

I have to ponder how I would have responded. More important, I need to think about how I respond to my present unpleasant situations. As I consider how God so bountifully blesses and cares for me, I know why ingratitude displeases Him.

In Matthew 20 we see employees murmuring against their employer. They thought they were unfairly paid. Do we sometimes think that life is unfair? If we see someone with more of something than we have, can we rejoice or are we covetous? Maybe we think the past was better, and we forget to count the blessings of today.

The queen of Sheba’s testimony of King Solomon’s kingdom was, “Happy are thy men, happy are thy servants, which stand continually before thee” (1 Kings 10:8). Is this the testimony of those who observe our walk of life? Can they see our faith in God and a calm, quiet happiness? The queen of Sheba also said to Solomon, “Blessed be the Lord thy God, which delighted in thee” (1 Kings 10:9). We must express contentment and gratitude so people can say the same of us and our God.

From Water My Soul…

Happiness Is

John 13

Everyone is seeking happiness in some way. The U. S. Declaration of Independence, written in 1776, promises “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness” to every citizen and permits each of us to decide how to find it.

Where do you look for happiness? Where do I pursue it? Is it found in having lots of money? If it is, why are some of the wealthiest people also some of the unhappiest?

Is it found in fame and popularity? If so, why have so many famous people, perhaps in an attempt to flee the profound emptiness of their existence, taken their own lives?

Some believe power and authority translate into happiness. Others think good looks and many possessions will make them happy. Still others search for some sense of happiness in addictions that leave them more miserable than fulfilled.

I searched my Bible and found a different understanding of happiness. In John 13:17, Jesus says, “If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.”

It’s the only place I can find where Jesus made any promise of happiness to his followers. The verse tells us that if we know the things he asks us to do (they’re in the Bible) and we do them, we’ll be happy. And this happiness comes quietly as peace, tranquility, and hope.

I found only a few more references to happy in my King James Version. Here are three:

Behold, we count them happy which endure. (James 5:11)

But and if ye suffer for righteousness’ sake, happy are ye. (1 Peter 3:14)

If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you. (1 Peter 4:14)

Obviously, as Christians seeking to be citizens of heaven someday, our understanding of happiness is not quite that which we find in any dictionary – or the Declaration of Independence.

We’re happy … if we endure to the end, for that is when the crown of life will be presented.

We’re happy … if we suffer for righteousness’ sake. Instead of turning away from God, how much am I willing to suffer?

We’re happy … when reproached for the name of Christ. Will I stand strong for my convictions even when serving Jesus Christ would cause me to suffer as the earliest Christians did?

Some translations use the word blessed instead of happy in these verses.

So to be happy, to be called blessed, we endure. Whether it’s suffering or reproach or ridicule o something else entirely. We endure to the end.

Jesus endured the cross for me. I endure for him whatever he ask of me.

Prayer: Lord, when I want to be happy, remind me to seek it in your way, and not necessarily mine.