It's so funny, since I've decided to do this everywhere I turn I seem to hear stuff about the health benefits of joy/thankfulness/optimism/etc.. Just yesterday I took my mom to the doctors office and had to wait forever and I can across like THREE magazine articles on the subject. Then got home last night and God TV was on and just walking through the living room I caught them talking about Paul and Silas in jail and how in the midst of their darkest moments they began to praise God and their praise set them free.
So this got me thinking a bit. When God would send the Israelites to war, it wasn't those who were going to be doing the fighting who were on the front lines, it was the worshipers. There's so many places in the bible it talks about in your darkest times, in the worst part of the storm, that's the place to begin to praise God for His faithfulness, to worship Him because of who He is, to remember! Because when we remember His faithfulness and what He's done for us in the past and how He's never failed us and so far we've never been left to die in a storm, then we grab hold of something tangible in the spirit realm and we pull it into our now! It's exactly what we do when we read the word. We read (and remember) the faithfulness of God for others and the promises that were made to us in those times and we grab hold of those promises and our faith grabs hold of who God says He is and we hold on for dear life and expect God to come through because 'He's not a man that He should lie'!
Now I'm not stupid. I know, at least for me, the LAST thing I feel like doing in the midst of a crap storm is puttin a smile on my face and tellin God how amazing and faithful He is, because honestly when it's really bad, it feels like He's already failed me, or He's just given up on my situation and walked away. But there's got to be something deep inside me, that has nothing to do with my heart or my head. It's that place where the rivers of Living waters that flow so easily when things are going good have slowed to a trickle. It's got to be the Spirit inside of me making intercession for me in my weakness.
Romans 8:26 Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. 27 Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
It's not an easy thing, but it has to be a choice. Not a feeling. But I believe, at least for myself, that if I will make the (numb) decision to begin to praise and worship in my darkest hour that He's going to meet me. That His spirit inside of me will begin to rise up and go hard to work removing those stones that have dammed up those rivers of Living water inside of me. I have to believe that. Because that's faith, and that's what I've got, it's all I've got!
So today I'm thankful for Truth! I have the joy of knowing that I have something inside of me to grab hold of when I'm homeless, when the bank account is empty, when I feel alone, when things feel completely hopeless and it seems there is no future or vision. I have joy. I have something that this world we live in CANNOT offer you. I have promises that were staked on a man's life. They are good to take to the bank. I have hope, even when I don't feel it...because He said I have a HOPE and a FUTURE. And if you read above He promises that ALL things work together for the good of those who love Him. And love Him I DO! And it's true, because I've hated some of the things I've gone through, but I wouldn't be who I am, or married to the amazing husband I have, I wouldn't have the heart or determination I have if I hadn't walked through the hard times and if those things hadn't 'worked together for my good'! I have more than all the money in the world combined could ever give me, in my God! I'm grateful that I have a way to pull myself out of the hard times. As David said, 'I will strengthen myself in the Lord. He was good at that, and I want to be the same. I'll end with this, in Psalms 13 He starts out being honest with God (which is fine), but by the end, his cicumstances haven't changed, he's simply made a decision to trust in God's faithfulness.
1 How long, O LORD ? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
2 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and every day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?
3 Look on me and answer, O LORD my God.
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death;
4 my enemy will say, "I have overcome him,"
and my foes will rejoice when I fall.
5 But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.
6 I will sing to the LORD,
for he has been good to me.
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