Ever had one of those days? You know the kind I am talking
about. The ones that are a truly "Murphy's Law" kind of a day. From
the moment you get up, the snowball starts rolling down the side of the
mountain. Everything you touch seems to fall apart. And if that were
not enough to try to handle, the constant interruptions and the
"rearranging" of your schedule seems endless. Then there are the
feelings of not getting anything accomplished, and the realization that
you are just "spinning your wheels." I had one of those days last
week.
As a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ I was well aware that the
Spirit was with me, residing in me with all kinds of power for me to
overcome this day in spite of how it was unfolding. My Bible was
available to me to be my moment-to-moment guide book for navigating
through this already unsettling day. But I soon learned as I sat down
to read my devotional that both the Spirit and the Word would be useless
to me unless I surrendered my "right" to experience my feelings in
full bloom, repented of them, and turned to face my God, bowing in His
presence. It would be in that posture alone that I could choose the joy
of the Lord, the only strength I needed for my discombobulated day.
These are the words that the Spirit spoke to me in the midst of the waves that continued to sweep over me:
"This day is holy to the LORD your God; do not mourn or weep . . . Go your way. Eat the fat and drink sweet wine . . . for this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, FOR THE JOY OF THE LORD IS YOUR STRENGTH!" (Nehemiah 8:10)
When I read those words a smile lit on my face, for in them I could
see what my solution to my day would be. If I would crucify my
irritated flesh and surrender my right to be "grieved" by my day and to
moan and complain about how much seemed to be going wrong, I would be
able to celebrate in the day with joy. Realizing my marching orders, I
chose to receive the command to go and "eat and drink," the command to
just continue through the day with a different attitude.
No matter what our days hold we will always have a choice in how we
walk through them. Frustration can become joyfulness; busy-ness can
become joyfulness; being overwhelmed can become joyfulness. Even
sadness and mourning can become joy. And when you choose joy, your
inner man is strengthened. Out of our inner being will flow rivers of
joy, contagious joy, that will minister to those around you. And
through our emotional transformation from upset to joyfulness we will be
strengthened with enough might to overcome even the hardest of days.
Choose joy! It will reverse the effects that a bad day can have on you and those around you!
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