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God's Joy Renews Your Strength to get Through Everyday
by Robin Chisholm "And be not grieved and depressed, for the joy of the Lord is your strength and stronghold." Nehemiah 8:10 Why do so many of us feel so miserable in our lives every day? My friends and I at times feel frustrated with our husbands, frustrated with our finances, and frustrated with the obstacles that we have every day. I feel we get ourselves so wrapped up in our misery that we lack genuine joy to take pleasure in our everyday lives. We hold onto the frustration and injustice that we feel towards our co-workers, husbands, finances, obstacles, and children and it begins to breed resentment. This in turn brings forth a hard heart and loneliness, despite being surrounded by our family and sleeping next to your spouse at night. We begin to feel depressed and grieve with sadness on our misery, which steals the strength to make it through our everyday lives. The Bible says the joy of the Lord IS our strength! God showed me two pieces to that verse, that joy equals strength. Carrying these frustrations is a heavy weight of frustrations that is invisible on your shoulders. However, God says let Me carry your burdens. 1 Peter 5:7 Scripture states, "Casting the whole of your care [all your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares for you affectionately and care about you watchfully." (AMP) Scripture says to cast our cares onto the Lord. So LET God carry that weight, cast it onto Him, all of it, your fears, your worries, what you are concerned about, the thoughts causing you to feel anxious. Say those fears, worries, concerns, anxious thoughts aloud and tell God that you are giving them to Him to carry and worry how they will be fixed. After you give all of that to God, then joy comes in. Joy is the exact opposite of the heavy weight of frustration. Joy is so refreshing. Think back to your last good belly-shaking laugh. How long ago was that? Are you like me, and it has been days if not longer? Joy lifts that weight of frustrations and gives our bodies a surge of emotions like nothing else does. It releases stress by bouncing each frustration off my shoulders with each inhale and exhale as I am laughing. God renews our strength through joy. Where there is joy, there are not burdens, there are not frustrations, and there are not worries. Joy allows peace to resonate in our soul. It allows us to enjoy our day, enjoy our family, enjoy the struggles thrown at us because we know that God will provide and take care of them. So we can feel strong in God's strength. We can draw the world to us that do not know Jesus through their personal misery. They can see the joy in the midst of the storm in us to know that we have something different that they want. The peace and God's strength is like an inner magnetic draw to pull people in and away from their misery. God did not make us to be miserable and carry that weight. We are preprogrammed to seek joy. Unfortunately, some people choose to medicate their misery with false joy such as alcohol or drugs to escape to their misery. God made us and he made us to want to seek strength through joy, hence drawing us to Him. Choose today to cast your cares, choose today to allow God's Holy Spirit to send forth His joy, so that you can recharge with God's strength to overcome life's frustrations. Robin Chisholm, RN BSN Free Lance Writer and writing parenting blogs for http://parents.swagga4christ.com/ Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |