I Choose Joy By Faith

Faith.  Think about faith.  What does faith really mean to you?  Is faith simply wishful thinking?  Hoping for the best?  Something you hang onto like a lucky rabbit's foot or a four-leaf clover?  If so, what happens to your "faith" when tragedy happens -- when your child dies, when your health is gone, when you don't know where your next pay-check will come from, or if it will come at all?


The Bible says that faith is tangible.  Hebrews 11:1 says, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." (King James Version)  That verse, the first verse of chapter 11, begins what is known as "The Faith Chapter" of the Bible.  That chapter, in the New Testament, reminds us of the true stories of the deep faith of some of the heroes of the Old Testament -- Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sara, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Rahab, and others, too many to mention, the writer says.  This chapter tells how each of these people endured great hardship, faced fierce enemies, mustered great courage, and yet trusted God through it all.  No mention is made of anyone who had great faith but whose life was without hardship, pain, suffering, and heartache. 

In verse 6 of the same chapter, it says, "But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." (King James Version)  If you are wondering if your faith is real, re-read that verse.  Have you come to God, believing that HE IS?  God exists.  God is real.  He has a personality, character traits, and unchangeable attributes.  His character, everything about Him that we humans are able to comprehend is written in His holy word, the Bible.  And here, in this verse, it tells us that the first thing about God that we must understand is that HE IS. 

OK, so if you accept the fact that He is, then what?  Read verse 6 again.  Are you seeking Him?  Are you DILIGENTLY seeking Him?  Are you trying to learn as much about Him as you can?  If not, my prayer is that you will begin to seek him now.  But, more than that, I pray that you will get to know Him, not just to know about Him.  I promise, the more you know about Him, the more you will want to know Him -- personally.  Like you know your best friend.  As a matter of fact, He wants to be your best friend. 

So how do you learn more about God?  First of all, read your Bible.  If you don't have a Bible, get one.  There are many new translations which are a lot easier to read than the old King James version that most of us grew up with.  But be careful.  There are also some "paraphrased" versions that are not as accurate as literal translations from the original ancient manuscripts.  If you are confused about which version you should read, ask your pastor or even the sales person at a Christian book store.  There are even Bibles on-line.  I use BibleGateway.com for a lot of my research (see the link to the right, under "Some of My Favorite Resources").  Whatever version you decide on, read it.  The next thing you should do to learn more about God is to attend a Bible study on a regular basis.  Go to a church and join a small group within that church.  You may be reluctant if you have not been in church in a long time, or if you have had a bad experience with a church.  But don't let that get between you and getting to know more about God.

I can't begin to tell you how important those two steps are in getting to know God.  But I can give you a feeble comparison:  What if I asked you, "Do you know who William Shakespeare was?"  If you answered me, very confidently, that he was the writer of several novels about a boy name Tom Sawyer, I would say, "You don't know much about Shakespeare except that he was a writer."  You might sincerely believe that he was from Missouri and wrote about Tom Sawyer, but you would be sincerely mistaken.  Don't make the same kind of mistake about God.  Don't trust that what you think you know is the truth, until you have diligently sought to know Him.    

Verse 6 of Hebrews 11 says that if we diligently seek Him, He rewards us.  How does He reward us?  In the same way He rewarded those heroes of faith in the Old Testament.  He gives us faith, too, just like theirs.  He sustains us in the hardships that we face.  He fills us with His strength.  He shows us how to choose joy by trusting Him.

So, my prayer for you and for myself this week is taken from Hebrews 10:22 and 23, "Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings.  Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised (God) is faithful." (New International Version)

I Choose Joy Because It Is Eternal

A few days ago I read a letter to "Dear Abby" from a reader who was unhappy in his job.  He had always wanted to teach, but felt stuck in a job that did not bring him any sense of accomplishment or fulfillment.  He wondered if it was too late for him to make a career move.  Abby gave him some excellent advice when she suggested that he talk to a career counselor at his community college.   

 

The Bible tells us that we need to work, that we need to provide for ourselves and our families.  Read 1 Timothy 5:8:  "But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever." (New King James Version)

 

The Bible also tells us that we should not worry.  Read Matthew 6:25-26:  “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?" (New King James Version)

 

At first glance, these two passages might seem to contradict each other -- we are instructed to work to provide for ourselves and our families, but we are also told that God will provide all our needs. 

 

Dig deeper.  Look at the totality of scripture.  The passage in Matthew is not telling us not to work, but not to worry -- about anything!  Not to worry about what we should do for a living, what we should or should not eat, whether we are beautiful or not, what the latest fashions are. . .  These things are fleeting.  God wants us to focus on things that are eternal.  Things like those found in the first chapter of 1 Peter, verses 3 - 6:

• HOPE through the resurrection of Jesus Christ
• An incorruptible INHERITANCE in Heaven
• Genuine FAITH
• Inexpressible JOY, all because of
• SALVATION by GRACE

 Then, at the end of that chapter, in verses 24 and 25, the temporal versus the eternal is re-emphasized and summarized: 

All flesh is as grass,
And all the glory of man as the flower of the grass.
The grass withers,
And its flower falls away,
But the word of the Lord endures forever.

So, back to the letter to "Dear Abby."  Although the writer of the letter didn't say so specifically, it sounds to me like he wants to have a job that produces an everlasting result.  Not everyone can have a career in teaching or in ministry or in medicine, areas that we usually associate with noble, enduring results.  But the career is not the goal.  The result is the goal.  And not all teachers, ministers, and doctors actually produce positive, everlasting results.  But you can produce everlasting results, no matter your career -- whether you are a stay-at-home mom, a CEO, disabled, retired, doctor, lawyer, farmer, truck driver -- whatever position you are in.  The old saying is a good rule to follow, "Bloom where you are planted."  Keep your eyes firmly fixed on God, The Great I Am, the One who is the same, yesterday, today, and forever, ETERNAL Father, and He will produce everlasting results in your life and in the lives of those you touch.

So, this week, join me in praising God, just as Isaiah did in chapter 40:28-31:

Have you not known?
Have you not heard?
The everlasting God, the Lord,
The Creator of the ends of the earth,
Neither faints nor is weary.
His understanding is unsearchable.
He gives power to the weak,
And to those who have no might He increases strength.
Even the youths shall faint and be weary,
And the young men shall utterly fall,
But those who wait on the Lord
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.

I Choose Joy in Distress

We all have those times when we want to hit the "SOS" key on our keyboard.  Wouldn't it be great if the worst we had to look forward to was a computer glitch, or "user error," or frustration over level 65 of Candy Crush?  Oh, if life were only that easy!  But in reality, life can hand us some pretty tough blows -- the loss of a job, the death of a child, bad news from the doctors, the break-up of a marriage, a false accusation that ruins an otherwise spotless reputation. . .  The list goes on and on.

No one is immune from distress, so the best we can do is to be prepared for it BEFORE it comes.  Imagine driving your car down a busy city street and seeing a distracted driver fail to stop for a red light.  You don't have time in that split-second to put on your seat belt.  That's why you put it on when you start your car, before you are even out of your driveway or the parking spot at the store.  Don't you keep basic medications and first aid supplies on hand?  We do that in preparation for the minor accidents or aches and pains we all have sooner or later.

 

So if we prepare for those minor distresses we might face any day of the week, why not prepare beforehand for the major, life shattering disasters that might be lurking around the next corner?  Wouldn't it be best to prepare for them now?

 

So, you ask, "How do I do that?"  God gives us the tools we will need when times of distress or even disaster come.  Isaiah 35:3-5 says, “Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, ‘Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense; He will come and save you.’ Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.”  Psalm 138:7 says, "Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life.  You stretch out your hand against the anger of my foes; with your right hand you save me.  And Proverbs 3:25-26 says, "Have no fear of sudden disaster or of the ruin that overtakes the wicked, for the Lord will be at your side and will keep your foot from being snared."  All of these verses confirm that we WILL face trouble, hardship, even danger.  But they all assure us that we WILL NOT face them alone, and that God not only knows our situation, but goes through the rough times WITH us.

 

One of my favorite verses is Nehemiah 8:10, "The joy of the Lord is our strength."  That joy is the kind of deep, enduring joy that will see you through any distress.  And that joy, resulting in strength, is available to you.  The more you get to know God, the deeper that joy and strength will grow.  So begin now to get to know Him.  Equip yourself now with the tools He provides.  Then, when distress comes, choose to use the tools of truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation and God's word (the Bible), all of which produce joy, to get you through the storms of life.

 

This week, my prayer for you and for myself is taken from the 6th chapter of Ephesians (our names inserted in the parentheses):

(Help us to) be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. (To) put on the full armor of God, so that (we) can take (our) stand against the devil’s schemes. . . Therefore (remind us to) put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, (we) may be able to stand (our) ground, and after (we) have done everything, to stand. (Help us to) stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around (our) waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with (our) feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, (help us to) take up the shield of faith, with which (we) can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. (Enable us to) take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

I Choose Joy over Comparison

A trap we can all find ourselves falling into at one time or another is the trap of comparing ourselves to other people.  That can lead to either a feeling of pride or else inferiority, either of which can suck the joy right out of our hearts.

I just finished reading the 12th chapter of 1st Corinthians.  It is about how God gives us all different personality traits and talents and that they are all equally essential to the work of the church.  The same can be said of any organization of individuals, whether it is a company, a charitable organization, a neighborhood, or even a family.
 
Some people are gifted with the art of organization.  But if we were all organizers, there would be chaos.  My friend, Kathy, is an organizer.  That’s what she does professionally.  She also organizes a birthday lunch for all the ladies in our neighborhood every month.  She makes us all feel very special on our birthdays.  But can you imagine what it would be like if we all wanted to be the organizer?  No one would know who to rely on for the lunch plans.
 
Another dear friend, Suzanne, and her daughter, Becca, make absolutely fabulous cupcakes.  They make sure that each birthday lunch ends with a yummy dessert.  But what if we were all great bakers?  We would have tons of fabulous sweets, we would all be overweight, and, with no one to organize us, we would never be able to determine where we would all meet to share those yummy goodies!  What a fat, crazy, mixed up world we would live in!

That’s why we all have different personality traits and different skills.  God expects us to use the skills He has given us and to work together with those who have other skills.  That is not to say that we should not develop new skills.  We should always be learning new things.  But we should not do so out of envy or jealousy of other people and their talents.  And we should not be so proud of our own skills or talents that we are unwilling to share our knowledge with others or feel threatened that their level of ability might one day be greater than our own.  I enjoy gardening, and one of my greatest pleasures related to that is sharing what I have learned and what I’ve grown with others.

Sometimes our skills will change.  My interests have evolved over the years, and so have my abilities.  My mother is a wonderful encourager.  She has a list of folks that she calls every day, just to let them know that she is thinking about them and that she cares for them.  She has not let her age or her physical limitations get in the way of using the talents God has given her.  I’m so glad she chooses to use her gift of encouragement rather than moping about getting old and not being able to do some of the things she used to do.  She is an inspiration to me and to many others.

So my prayer this week for myself and for you is that we would not fall into the trap of comparing ourselves with other people, that God would show us how and where He wants us to use our skills, and that others would be blessed as a result.