Irrepressible Joy!

The Lord never ceases to amaze me. He is so faithful to His Word! I wonder sometimes why I have such a struggle to trust Him with every aspect of my life. He's never failed me. Time and time again, He has proved Himself so faithful!

I struggled with my emotions a fair amount this past week and a half as it was the 2nd anniversary of Dad's death, his funeral and another birthday of mine without him. I know that it's natural to grieve what we miss. It's healthy even. But all too often, what starts out as grieving my Dad turns into giving into a bunch of lies... "I'm all by myself now", "life is too hard", "no one understands"... the list goes on. The problem with a pity party is that I don't really want to tell myself the Truth and from there, each little, petty annoyance adds to my misery. This is where I found myself this past weekend. I was hurting.

Now, I know where to go when I'm hurting. I even wrote about it. The thing that took me awhile to figure out is that the Lord is much more patient than I am. He's the calm Father that waits for His child to finish her rant and finish shaking her fist at Him. I ran to the right place but with the wrong heart. Finally, I feel like the Lord said "are you finished?" Praise Him I was close enough to being done that I could listen to what He had to say.

He took me to Psalm 97. His timing is always perfect! It was the very next Psalm that I was due to read and it begins with the bold truth THE LORD REIGNS! I was reminded that He really does reign. It might be feeling like everything in the world is going wrong but the Truth is is that God IS on the throne and He IS in control. Everything that happens has to first be passed through His hands. He promises to work ALL things together for the good of those who love Him. He's got a purpose for us that is infinitely higher than we can imagine. The verse goes on to say that this is reason enough to rejoice and be glad! Okay, He had the attention of my head but what was He going to do with my heart?

In verse 11 there was the most irresistible promise... irrepressible joy! Now tell me one person who would not love to have irrepressible joy. I thought, "alright, Lord. What's the condition?" Here's what it said... there's "irrepressible joy which comes from consciousness of His favor and protection." (Amplified Bible) I started to consider the favor of the Lord. I asked Him for eyes to see His blessings all around me. It would take me an hour to tell you the favor that I witnessed yesterday alone!

When we lift up our eyes to the Lord "from whence cometh my help" it will astonish You what He is up to all around you. If you don't believe me, just start keeping a list. Start with the obvious blessings and they will multiply from there - no matter what you're going through.

What was the result of my new and improved vision? Irrepressible joy! And praise the Lord - He's doing it again today!