FORGOT TO BE HAPPY

Nehemiah 8:10 NLT …This is a sacred day before our Lord. Don’t be dejected and sad, for the joy of the Lord is your strength!” V.12 So the people went away to eat and drink at a festive meal, to share gifts of food, and to celebrate with great joy because they had heard God’s words and understood them.

I read this quote the other day, “I was so upset, I forgot to be happy”. I suspect we’ve all felt a bit like that at some time. Something has upset us and we forgot to be happy!😊

I know God doesn’t expect us to be happy clappy all the time, especially when bad things happen, but He does want us to hang on to His inner joy.

It might be something small like a comment we’ve heard that has upset us, or when things go wrong like when my printer ink leaked. If we’re not careful life has a way of creeping up on us and stealing our joy bit by bit, and when that happens we have to ask the Lord for His help to get our joy back.😊

Our verse reminds us that the joy of the Lord is our strength and there are days when we’ve been really busy and we’re a healthy tired, but other times we feel tired and worn out just because we lost our joy. Without even realising it we can lose our perspective and see things from a negative point of view, instead of seeing what God sees, which is the bigger picture.

Perhaps we all need a bit of a challenge sometimes to see if our faith has been taking a back seat when God reminds us we should be walking by faith, not by sight and not by how we ‘feel’. I know it’s not easy when things are not how we’d like them to be, but with the Holy Spirit’s help to call on, He will bring us through to our place of victory, when we are strengthened by His joy. 

So this is just a little nudge to us all not to get so upset that we forget to be happy, but to draw on the joy of the Lord for our strength.😊 Amen.