OCTOBER 30
“The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; He will save, He will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in His love, He will joy over thee with singing” - Haggai 3:17
I wonder, how many of us sprang out of bed this morning, raring to go? Or did we roll over, switch off the alarm, thinking 'Oh no, here we go again, same old routine, same old grind!' Are we miserable, or do we face the day with joy?
When was it that stress, and pressure replaced laughter? - joy disappeared, hearts turned cold. And have you noticed how rare it is nowadays to see people smile? Eyes from young to old, no longer dance with joy, and faces are closed, saying “no” - even before the question's asked?
Ask psychologists and they'll tell you that life is 10% what happens to us and 90% how we respond to it...we have a choice of our response to life. Charles Spurgeon, a 19th century preacher thought so too, he told his ministry students that ' 'An individual who has no joy about him had better be an undertaker and bury the dead for he will never succeed in influencing the living...' How we are determines who we are and joy is a gift, joy is a choice – a gift God wants all of us to choose.
Matt. 5:3-12, the Beatitudes, is really a recipe - Christ's recipe for joy – the true agenda of every Christian. Jesus is saying here, “You have heard the Gospel, and the Gospel brings joy in the here-and-now world as well as life everlasting.”
The following take on the Fruits of the Spirit by Max Lucado, illustrates the joy of Jesus available to us all....if we choose. Every day I try to follow this – and every day I fail somewhere, and the next day with God's grace, have to try again...how will you do?
Today,
I choose love. No occasion justifies hatred; no injustice warrants bitterness. I choose love. Today I will love God and what God loves.
I choose joy. I will invite my God to be the God of circumstance.
I choose peace. I will live forgiven. I will forgive that I may live.
I choose patience. I will overlook the inconvenience of the world. Instead of cursing the one who pushes me out and takes my place - I'll invite him to do so.
I choose kindness. I will be kind to the poor for they are alone. Kind to the rich for they are afraid. And kind to the unkind, for that is how God has treated me.
I choose goodness. I will seek God's grace and seek to give it to others.
I choose faithfulness. Today, I will keep my promises.
I choose gentleness. Nothing is won by force. I choose to be gentle.
I choose self-control. I refuse to let what will rot and harm myself and others, rule the eternal and kill God-given joy.
Jesus joy – the type of joy that brings the gladness that danced through the Red Sea. The joy that blew the trumpet at Jericho. The secret that made Mary sing, and the triumph of the tomb that Easter morning.
This too, is our promise...if we want it.
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Housekeeping details for you
The point of this short blog will become clear if you decide to use this reading in the way we intend it. Netherfield Seventh-day Adventist Church believes in healthy churches. You can see what that means if you head to the relevant Healthy Churches page of the website. We also want other churches to be healthy. That means you can join in our campaign to create healthy churches, with healthy people serving the people in those churches.
A healthy church is one where Jesus comes first. A healthy church is one where the people work together to put Jesus first. One thing we are doing is to join people together to spread that news. I would like you to look at our prayer partners page. This will explain how we want you to use this short devotional. Very basically we want you to find a like-minded Christian friend who you will join with to : choose to pray together every day, decide together on a way to serve other people together, to help them grow as Christians - and to invite the Holy Spirit into your life every day. This blog that you will receive every day simply gives a common spiritual purpose. If you are a newcomer and want to join the blog with this object in mind click here
