Is My Light Growing Dim?

Christmas time is nearly here, and one of my favorite things about this time of year is driving around after dark and seeing all the beautiful light displays people have put up on the outside of their houses!  Many are simple yet elegant, but some are truly spectacular in their brilliance!  I enjoy driving down one particular street this time of year, because it is lined with beautiful white light displays on either side for at least a couple of miles.  They stand out in stark contrast to the dark night sky behind them. 

All the Christmas lights remind me of the way that God describes what we as Christians are called to be in Philippians 2:15 – lights that shine brightly in a dark world.  Recently my pastor preached on this passage, but he brought out something that I had never really considered very much in connection with this.  The very next verse says, “Holding fast the Word of life,” thus connecting our ability to shine as lights in this world with how committed we are to the Word of God!  The word “hold” in this verse could also be translated “offer,” or “hold out,” which would give it a slightly different but closely connected meaning.  It is only as we are holding firmly to the Word of God ourselves and giving our lives daily to it that the power of God’s Spirit at work within us through His Word will set us apart from the world around us and make them curious to know what makes us different.  Often then, if God is at work, this will lead to opportunities for us to share that same Word with them, which alone has the power to transform them just as it is transforming us!  What a beautiful picture!  God’s Word is not only the means by which we are sanctified, as John 17:17 reminds us, but it is also the fuel for our Christian life (Matt. 4:4) that will enable our lights to keep burning brightly in the darkness all around us! 

So the question that I have to ask myself is, how prominent has God’s Word truly been in my life?  How much do I prioritize time spent in reading, study, meditation, and memorization of it on a daily basis?  If I am honest, probably far less than it deserves!  Is it any wonder, then, that my Christian life seems so often to lack the power and vitality that I long for, and my testimony for Christ seems often so ineffective? 

I need God by His Spirit to give me a renewed hunger for the eternal food of His Word every day, as well as the insight to understand its meaning for my life so that it will truly impact me on a daily basis!  Far too often I am so full of other things to which I have given a higher priority that I have little appetite left for God’s Word and find myself easily distracted and bored with it.  Oh that God would show me what lesser things I need to forego so that I have more time and interest left for what is most satisfying and strengthening to my spiritual life!

 

“Help me understand the meaning of Your precepts so that I can meditate on Your wonders… How sweet Your Word is to my taste – sweeter than honey to my mouth.  I gain understanding from Your precepts; therefore I hate every false way.  Your Word is a lamp for my feet and a light on my path.”  

Psalm 119:27, 103-105

Trials - a Tool in the Hand of Our Faithful God!

I know, O Lord, that Your judgments are righteous, and that in faithfulness You have afflicted me.  Psalm 119:75

This week I am celebrating one year since my brain surgery, and looking back I have so much to praise the Lord for as I consider the evidences of His sovereignty and loving Hand in my life!  Part of me hesitates to even call what I went through a "trial," because it seems so small in light of the suffering that many others have been entrusted with.  However, God, in His perfect wisdom, knew that this was exactly what I needed at this particular time in my life, and I have no doubt that He used it, and continues to use it, to teach me about His faithfulness.  As a loving Father, He does not always give His children what is most comfortable or convenient, and sometimes it is downright painful, but He always gives them what He knows will be most effective in bringing about growth in Christlikeness (Rom. 8:28-29)!  I will never forget the following statement that I once heard in a message - "God's goal is not to make me comfortable but to make me Christlike."  How thankful I am that He is willing to allow me to experience difficult, painful situations at times, not because He doesn't care or can't stop them, but He purposely chooses not to spare me from all pain, because He, my perfect Father, knows that would not be best for me!

The more I think about God's timing with this ordeal surrounding my brain tumor, the more amazed I am to realize that He allowed all of this to happen exactly at a time in my life when I most needed to be shaken up and learn by experience that God alone can satisfy me - that He alone is enough and always will be, regardless of the circumstances of this life!  I was at a point in my life that I was very dissatisfied with where I was at and was really struggling to find enjoyment in what He had given me to do.  By taking me out of commission for a few weeks and bringing me to a point of physical (and at times emotional) brokenness and dependence upon Him and others, I was awakened in a whole new way to His wonderful goodness to me - that I deserve NOTHING at all, and every day He gives me is a gift from Him to be used for His glory!  The fact that I was given the gift of complete recovery from a fairly major surgery just made me even more humbled and grateful for the gift of life and health and gave me a whole new perspective and excitement about life that I had not felt in a long time!  I can truly say that I went back to teaching and my other responsibilities a different person after that experience, and nearly a year later that new enthusiasm and joy is not diminished!  Now instead of longing for Friday and dreading Monday, I find myself looking forward to Monday, excited about starting a new week, and overwhelmed whenever I think about how privileged I am to be able to be doing what I'm doing right now - loving my job more than I ever thought possible, and thrilled with the incredible potential for ministry here in the Iowa City area!  Truly, it is only by His grace, and I praise Him for bringing me to this point!

I think that one of the reasons why trials can be such a powerful tool to awaken us to God's goodness and to draw us closer to Him is that they have the potential like few other things to humble us and to renew our appreciation for things that we so often take for granted!  Nothing can sooner weaken our effectiveness for Christ or dampen our enthusiasm in life than pride and ingratitude, and God knows that there is nothing quite like trials to weaken both of these enemies of our souls!  I truly believe this is why Paul could say, "Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me... for when I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Cor. 12:9-10). 

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ." I Peter 1:3-7

God's Subtraction Strategy

He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”  2 Cor. 12:9

 

My students and I just started a new chapter in 3^rd grade math this week about subtraction, and we introduced it by reviewing some mental subtraction strategies and then looking at the story of Gideon in Judges 7, where God subtracted from Gideon’s already outnumbered army until they were just a handful of men, to ensure that they would depend totally upon Him and that He alone would get the glory for their victory against Midian.  We talked about the fact that God often subtracts things from us, too, so that we must depend on Him, and in so doing He gets the glory for anything that is accomplished!  Little did I know that God would give me an example of that in my own life the very same day!

That afternoon, I began to develop a headache, but I had already told my conversational English partner from Korea that I could meet with her that evening.  I left school early enough to go work out before meeting with her, hoping that a good intense work-out would help relieve the headache, as it often does.  Instead, however, it just continued to get worse, and as I drove to pick her up and bring her to my apartment for our Bible study, I was praying that God would give me the strength to get through the evening.  I told Him, “God, I need You, because I really don’t feel up to this right now!  Please enable me to still be a blessing to her tonight in spite of my weakness!”

As it turned out, I had a wonderful time with her, during which she really opened up and shared how much she has been struggling with feeling like God is not as close to her as He felt before she came to America.  She asked me to pray for her, and right then and there I got to do just that.  God brought James 4:8 to mind – “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to You” – and I was able to share this verse with her and encourage her to really seek God intentionally every day in His Word and prayer, because when God feels distant it is never He who has moved away from us!  She confessed that it has been hard for her to make time to read the Bible regularly, and I was able to challenge her to start making that a priority daily, even if just a few verses, and I assured her I would be praying for her!  I just felt the Holy Spirit really directing my conversation with her and giving me the words and the energy that I needed that evening.   Meanwhile my headache had not improved, but God was giving me the grace to endure it and providing me with one of the best opportunities to encourage a struggling sister in Christ that I have had in a while!  He truly reminded me that day of the truth of 2 Corinthians 12:9, that His strength is made perfect in our weakness.  This is precisely why He allows us to feel so weak at times, for it is then that we depend most fully on Him and that He can be most glorified as He works through us in our weakness to minister to others!  This is His subtraction strategy to keep us humble and desperately dependent on Him and to ensure that He alone gets all the glory!

Is God Listening?

Have you ever been tempted to wonder why it seems like other people have such exciting answers to prayer to share, while your prayers somehow don’t seem to make much of a difference?  That friend or coworker continues to be uninterested in the Gospel, that relationship seems no closer to being healed, that person still doesn’t respond to you, and it doesn’t seem like God is using you in any significant ways at all.  I have had those thoughts many times, but as I was recently praying and thinking through some of these situations where it didn’t seem my prayers had made any impact at all, I began to realize that something indeed had changed!  No, the situations were no different, but I had changed!  My whole perspective on the circumstances was different, and I didn’t even realize that change was taking place!  Instead of changing the circumstances that I was in, God was giving me a peace and contentment and even joy in the midst of those very same circumstances!  He was transforming little by little my attitude towards the people I was praying for, too, and replacing my selfish motivation with a more genuine love for them and true desire for their good! 

God does often choose to answer our prayers the way we are hoping, and He wants us to bring our requests before Him, however great or small!  Nevertheless, the promise of Phil. 4:6-7 is not so much that God will do just what we are asking Him to do when we pray, but it’s about how we ourselves will be affected by prayer – “the peace of God which surpasses every thought will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”  Sometimes God may not choose to calm the storm or settle the conflict or change our friends, but He will give us an inner peace through it and even use our prayers to change our perspective so that we can see the good that He is bringing about through it! 

What kind of an impact would it have on my prayer life if I started asking God to change me as I am praying for other people or circumstances?  Would my perspective on “unanswered prayer” be different? 

“Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.  And the peace of God which surpasses every thought, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”  Phil. 4:6-7

 

Gospel-Centered Prayer

I believe that we serve a God Who cares deeply about every detail of our lives, and that He wants us to bring before Him every need that is on our hearts, both for ourselves and for others.  In fact, one of the best ways that we can serve others is by praying for them!  Recently I have been looking at some of the prayers of Paul with my 3^rd grade class during our morning devotions, and it has been very instructing and challenging to me to be reminded anew of the things that I should be focusing on in my prayers, both for myself and for others.  It is interesting that in Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians, there is a pattern in the prayers of Paul for those churches, as well as the things for which he requests their prayers.  One thing that stands out is a desire for spiritual understanding of the Gospel and all that it means for believers, as well as for spiritual maturity, which seems to be directly linked to bearing fruit in Christlikeness (Eph. 1:17-19; 3:16-19; Phil. 1:9-11; Col. 1:9-11; 4:12). The similarities between Phil. 1:9-11 and Col. 1:9-11 are especially striking!  In both passages he prays that they be filled with knowledge and spiritual discernment, and that they grow in bearing the fruit of good works.  Then in Colossians 4, he seems to get a little more specific as far as what that looks like.  He prays in verses 3-6 for open doors to share the Gospel and exhorts the Colossians to walk in wisdom towards unbelievers, with gracious speech that is seasoned with salt, being always ready with how to answer anyone.  Similarly, in Ephesians 6:19, he asks prayer for boldness in proclaiming the mystery of the Gospel. 

It would seem then, at least in looking at these particular prayers of Paul, that we could summarize the things that he emphasizes as follows:  praying for spiritual maturity for believers through a deeper understanding of the Gospel, and (could we say as a result?) open doors for sharing this Gospel with unbelievers.  There are no greater things than these that we can and should be praying for ourselves and for those we love!  As we learn to pray this way, we should look with expectation for what God will do in our lives and the lives of others!

“And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ; having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.” Phil. 1:9-11

“And pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel”  Eph. 6:19

 

Like Apples of Gold

“But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger.”  James 1:19

There I was, doing it again – interrupting to make my comment before the other person was really finished speaking.  When I realized it, I was so embarrassed!  I wished I could take back those words and just be a better listener.  Not that there was anything wrong with my comments – they were fine.  It’s just that by not letting the other person finish before I spoke, I was in essence communicating that what I had to say about the topic was more important than what they had to say. 

As I reflected on why I so often jump in and interrupt before others are finished, I concluded that I am all too eager to offer my two cents worth because I want the other person to think I’m intelligent, witty, amusing, or even interested in them, and in my effort to avoid awkward silences I sometimes go to the opposite extreme and speak when I really should be silent.

One day, after I had already been pondering these things, I was listening to the radio and heard someone commenting about how nice it is to meet people who are good at listening and who wait to speak until they have really listened and have something truly insightful to say – not just mere words to fill up the silence.  This reminded me of Proverbs 25:11, which says, “Like apples of gold in settings of silver is a word spoken in right circumstances.”  It’s better to say nothing at all than to speak at the wrong time or with careless words!  Sometimes silence is refreshing and speaks louder than many words ever could.

So the next time I am tempted to jump in and make a comment on something that the other person is saying, I need to stop and make sure that I have truly listened and that what I am about to say is really going to improve the silence!  Does the other person need my witty remarks or my listening ear more?  Have I taken time to think through what, if any, response would be most helpful?  Am I communicating that I care about what the other person has to say, or that I am eager to make myself heard?

Lord, please help me to practice being quick to listen and slow to speak today, and that I would truly listen with a genuine interest to what others are saying, without always feeling like I have to have some comment to make about it!  May the words that come out of my mouth always be edifying to the hearer and glorifying to You, and may I be careful to avoid idle speech that is of no profit!  I want my words, as well as my silence, to bring healing, encouragement, and grace, so that I might better be able to share the love of Christ with those around me!

To God be the glory - great things He has done!

Somewhere around the middle of 2012 was when I first began to realize that something might be wrong.  There were no major symptoms, but just a series of incidents that were significant enough to begin to cause some concern, such as some memory loss, a couple of severe headaches, and a dizzy spell or two that all seemed unusual.  From the very beginning, God’s hand was amazingly evident in every detail!  First of all, our family has a friend who is a neurologist, and she was the one who, after hearing about the incidents I had, was able to get me a referral to see a neurologist in Des Moines in early October.  He did an EEG and an MRI, which revealed a small mass in my right temporal lobe that was causing some minor seizure-like activity in my brain.  He was of the opinion that it needed to be removed, even though it appeared benign, and he referred me to Dr. Matt Howard at the University of Iowa Hospital in Iowa City, because of the world-class excellence of the neurosurgery department there.  I first saw him on October 22, and he was able to get me scheduled me for surgery on November 14.  God graciously allowed me to continue teaching right up until the day before my surgery and make preparations for my aid, who took over the classroom in my absence.  Shari was another clear evidence of God’s sovereign provision, since she has been a part of our classroom since the beginning of the year and works wonderfully well with the kids! 

The surgery lasted 7 hours and went very well, however they had to leave a small part of the tumor, because it was located so near to the brain stem.  We had been told that very likely I would have to do further treatment at some point or possibly have another surgery later in the future.  I was released from the hospital 4 days after surgery and permitted to go to Ankeny (where my family lives) for the recovery time.  God’s timing was so perfect, as the time recommended for recovery took me right up to Christmas break, and it was such a blessing to be able to be with my family during that time! 

When the pathology report came back, I was told that it was the best possible news I could have received!  Not only was the tumor benign, but amazingly they do not believe that I will ever have to worry about it again, even though they couldn’t remove it entirely!  I was totally overwhelmed by God’s goodness and mercy in giving me such complete healing!  The prayers of so many people on my behalf during this time were truly humbling and encouraging, and it was wonderful to be able to share this news, for when many people pray, many thanks can be rendered to God for His answer!

As I daily recovered my strength, it was great to be able to resume more and more normal activities, and when school started back up in January, I was able to go back to teaching.  It really only took about a week before I really felt like I was back into the swing of things, and in fact, in many ways I felt even better than I had before the surgery!  God has continued to give me many opportunities to share what He did through all of this, and to Him be all the glory for everything, for He is truly sovereign in every detail of life and wonderfully good in everything that He allows!  I would not trade this experience, because I learned so much through it – especially about what the Body of Christ looks like when it is truly functioning as God intends it to, the nearness of God that we can most fully experience when we are hurting the most or feeling the most needy, and His absolute sovereignty in every detail of our lives!  I praise Him for entrusting me with this small trial, so that I can be better able to be an encouragement to others with the same comfort that God gave to me during this time!  One of the verses that became especially precious to me through all this is Psalm 59:16 – “I will sing of Your strength and will joyfully proclaim Your faithful love in the morning.  For You have been a stronghold for me, a refuge in my day of trouble.”  Truly, God is my strength, my joy, and my refuge, and life’s trials only serve to make that truth more real and more precious than ever!

 

 

Do I Let Others See Christ in Me?

“Father, please use me in some way to be  testimony for You right now to whomever I might meet in here today.  Just help me to represent You well, so that even without knowing my name they might see evidence that I belong to You!” I whispered as I got ready to walk into the fitness center where I had been working out regularly for some time.  I longed so much to be able to be a witness to someone, but time after time I walked out without ever having a chance to talk to anyone.  “Lord, I want so much to be a witness for Christ, but it’s so hard to have a chance to talk to anyone, even though I see these same people on a daily basis here!  Why does it seem so hard for me to connect with people, when others seem to be able to do so much more naturally?”

As I continued praying daily about this, I realized more and more that my greatest desire is just to be like Jesus to the people that I meet, but as a girl living in 21^st century America, sometimes I struggle so much to know what Jesus would do in my place?  How do I connect what I know about His life with my own reality day by day?  What does it look like for me to become like Him to the people I interact with?

In Sunday School about this same time, my Pastor had been doing a series on growing in sanctification, and one Sunday his study on Paul’s desire to be conformed to Christ’s death really hit home with me (Phil. 3:10).  The more I desire to be satisfied in Christ and become more like Him, the more I must become conformed to His death, and this means a willingness to humble myself as He did and to actually die to myself, so that I can serve others (Philippians 2:5-8)!  Matthew 20:28 tells us that Jesus Himself “did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”  If I am to live like Him, I must be willing to put self to death in order to be a servant to others and to love others.  In addition, Jesus told His disciples in John 13:35 that “by this all people will know that You are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

So I began to ask myself, what would it look like for me to love those people that I see on a daily basis, even strangers, and how can I put self to death in order to reach out to others around me and show the love of Christ to them?  One thing that God began to impress upon my heart was that it might just be something as simple as making eye contact with people and smiling at them.  So I started making it a point to do that as often as possible, with people I saw at the gym and even people I passed while out on walks or at the grocery store.  It wasn’t much, but it was a step towards learning to notice people around me and show love the way Jesus would do.   Even just a smile can go a long way towards encouraging someone, while at the same time communicating a heart of joy that comes from delighting in Christ, which can lead to opportunities to share with them the source of our joy!  Why is it that so often our faces reflect so little joy, and we walk right past people without even so much as a glance in their direction, as if they were completely invisible!  I know that we live in a culture where people keep largely to themselves, and personal space is guarded carefully, but I think most people appreciate friendliness more than we realize, and it can be a great way to show our distinctiveness as Christians!

As I continued to pray for opportunities to be used of God to minister to people I meet in my day to day, I decided that loving others might take me out of my comfort zone sometimes, but that I needed to look for opportunities not just to smile and be friendly, but to talk to people.  If you know me at all, you know this is not natural for me, especially with strangers, but I decided that part of dying to myself in order to love others might be pushing myself out of what is comfortable and looking for ways to start conversations with people.  I started trying to say hi to people that I came in contact with, especially at the gym, where I see the same faces every day and have at least one thing in common with everyone in there – a commitment to exercise!  Then one day God gave me an opportunity to have a real conversation with a lady that I had seen many times before in there but had never actually talked to.  We were working out next to each other, and I decided to take a risk and try to start a conversation, so I just asked her if she had a regular routine that she did every time she came in to work out.  I discovered that she was very friendly, and we got to talking for several minutes!  It wasn’t much, but it was a start, and who knows how God might use even that simple gesture of friendship?  She would not have thought it unusual or rude had I not spoken to her at that time, but I couldn’t let the opportunity pass by, even though talking to strangers has never been comfortable for me!  I realized again that we have opportunities all the time to choose to put self to death, as my pastor had been talking about, but how often do we instead choose what is most comfortable and pleasing to self, and in so doing miss out on opportunities to be a blessing to others!

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.  By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”  John 13:34-35

Cultivating a Heart of Joy

As I was recently reading through the book of Psalms in my personal devotions, I found it very interesting how often the theme of joy kept coming up, and so I decided to make a list of every reference to joy or delight in the book and then look for common threads.  I found that there are over 110 references of this kind in the book of Psalms!  That, in and of itself, reveals to me that joy was truly characteristic of the human writers of this book, but I also found it to be very instructive as to the secret of true joy, not only for these writers, but for us as well!

As I began to examine these many references to joy or delight, I found that the overwhelming majority of these verses express the joy of the psalmist in God Himself and in spending time in His presence (4:7; 9:2; 16:11; 17:15; 21:6; 32:11; 33:1; 33:12; 34:2; 34:5; 34:8; 37:4; 40:4; 40:16; 43:4; 63:5, 11; 64:10; 65:4; 66:6; 70:4; 84:4; 85:6; 97:12; 73:25-26; 104:34; 105:3; 144:15; 145:16, 19). David declares that he had found joy in God’s presence (16:11) and calls God’s people to rejoice in Him, too (33:1). Truly, all who will seek God will find Him to be completely satisfying, and thus they will discover in Him the truest joy possible to man (34:5; 40:16)!

Before a person can have a right relationship with God and live in His presence, however, it is necessary that their sins be forgiven by God, and thus Psalm 32:1 expresses the joy of being forgiven by a holy God.  This is possible only through faith in the blood of Jesus, which completely paid the price for our sin and provided for those who place their trust in Him to have a restored relationship with God (Rom. 3:23; 1 John 1:9). 

Once we have entered into a right relationship with God through Jesus Christ, it is necessary that we walk in obedience to Him in order to experience the blessing and joy of fellowship with Him (Ps. 1:11-12; 40:8; 112:1; 119:1-2; 128:1).  So important is this that the psalmist can even say that “happy is the man You discipline and teach from Your law” (94:12).  When we are walking in disobedience to God, this can bring nothing but grief, and God lovingly disciplines His wayward children in order to bring them to repentance and back into fellowship with Him, the place of greatest joy!

Another thing that stood out to me is how many times the idea of joy is linked to praise and thanksgiving to the Lord for Who He is and what He has done. In Psalm 71:23, the psalmist writes, "my lips will shout for joy when I sing praise to You." in 92:4, we read "You have made me rejoice, Lord, by what You have done; I will shout for joy because of the works of Your hands." Again, in 103:2-5, he says, "My soul, praise the Lord and do not forget all His benefits," then goes on to list several specific ones, including that "He satisfies you with goodness." In Psalm 9:14; 13:5; and 35:9, David praises God specifically for His salvation and deliverance; in Ps. 31:7 and 59:16, he praises God and rejoices in His faithful love. In all of these examples, the psalmist's joy is directly linked to his praise of God.  When our hearts are full of praise to our great God, they will naturally overflow with joy in all that He is and has done for us!

In Psalm 119, we see something else that brought great joy to the heart of David – the Word of God!  In fact, nearly every verse of this psalm mentions God’s Word, though David uses many different terms for it (translated decrees, commands, precepts, statutes, instruction, etc.).  David found immense joy, not just in reading, but in constant meditation upon God’s Word, which he had memorized extensively and continually brought to mind.  In the book Living the Psalms, which I quoted from in my last post, I found an interesting insight on the word "enthusiasm" that I thought was really neat! Swindoll entitles his study of Psalm 119 "The Grind of Low Enthusiasm," and he points out that the word "enthusiasm" comes from two Greek words meaning "in" and "God," and thus we see the idea that "enthusiasm" is found in God and comes from being "in God," or spending time in His Word.

Psalm 119 is not the only place where we find mention of rejoicing in God’s Word, though.  Psalm 112:1 tells us, “Happy is the man who fears the Lord, taking great delight in His commandments.”  To take great delight in something implies spending much time engaged in it and making it a priority.  When God’s Word truly becomes our delight, and we are spending time daily filling our minds with it, our hearts will surely be filled with the joy of learning more about the God Who speaks to us through its pages, and we will find ourselves often throughout the day bringing to mind and rejoicing in the truths we discover therein - eternal, life-changing truths!
 
Finally, I was struck by the words “I will rejoice” found several times (9:2, 14; 31:7; 35:9; 63:7; 104:34)! Those who penned these words realized an important truth that can transform the life of a Christian who is struggling to find joy in life – joy is a choice!  We have abundant reasons to be thankful - God’s presence with us, forgiveness of sins and a right relationship with Him, His character and goodness to us, His strength and help in trouble, His mighty works, and the list goes on - but we can choose instead to focus on whatever seems to be going wrong in our lives and develop a complaining spirit rather than a joyful spirit!  A joyful heart must be cultivated, as we daily make a choice to focus on and rejoice in God, His Word, and His countless blessings to us!

I came away from this study of Psalms with a renewed perspective of where true joy comes from and how I can be cultivating a heart of joy, regardless of what my circumstances may be!  I belong to a God Who has forgiven me, Who dwells with me and will never leave me, Who never changes, Who is my comfort and strength in affliction, Who chastens me in love and draws me back when I stray from Him, and Who has given me His Word so that I might learn more about Him and His will for my life!  Those are some pretty amazing reasons to be joyful, and I want to choose to focus my thoughts on these things and find true and lasting joy every day in the source of all joy Himself!