Be with us

Walk with us Jesus for we need You more than ever. Now the time is unknown of Your return, but the season is here.  We need You to help us stay strong. We need You to lean on, to help us stay strong in this season of dire times.  What You mean to us is salvation and You help us to keep this on the forefront of our hearts as we tread and trudge through each day of this vile world.  You are our keeper, our grace, and we are Your sheep that need to be watched and cared for.

 

“For I know the thoughts that I think toward You, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give You an expected end.” (Jeremiah 29:11)

 

We need peace in our hearts Lord. Peace and assurance of being taken of like a newborn baby.  We need You to feed us the milk of Your wisdom and the meat of Your knowledge. We need assurance of safety in these times of turmoil.  The world is against us but You are for us: let us not forget this.  As we face adversity, shine Your light on us, show us comfort and love, and give us peace of mind and heart. 

 

Every day is a day closer to Your coming Christ.  We are struggling to not be shut down by the world. We are surrounded by evil and the fight is hard. Sin envelopes around us like a pack of wolves, ready to pounce and feed on our hearts.  Be with us with our battles. Be our armor. Be our sword. Be our commander.  Help us to defeat temptation and give us an escape when it is seemingly unendurable for us to survive. 

 

“And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.” (1 John 4:16)

 

We need Your love oh God. We need it to survive and to prosper in Christ. We need strength and endurance to finish the race put before us in our lives. We need Your love to embolden us to resist Satan. We need Your love to share with others Your glory and Your ways.  We need Your love for we love You and our hearts need that comfort only You can give to Your chosen children.

 

We Christians dwell in Your love and cherish You more than anything in this world. You are above all things and are the creator of all, including us.  You know each of us. You know our thoughts, or desires, and mostly You know our hearts. May our hearts show You the love we have for You, All Mighty God. Our hearts are with You and help us to remain faithful and strong in You as the end nears.

 

You say that if we dwell in Your love, then You will dwell in us.  Please Lord, I pray that You stay in us. Your promises are true and Your ways are always right. This is a promise You have given us that You will dwell in us if we love You.  We believe in Your promises, all of them, and know that whatever adversity we face from the world, You will be with us in our trials and tribulations. You will help us overcome and will help us stay on the path of righteousness.

 

“That Christ may dwell in Your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.” (Ephesians 3:17-19)

 

You are the center of our lives Jesus. Nothing can separate us from You except ourselves.  Stay in our hearts Jesus.  Keep us strong.  Knowing that our knowledge of Your love is not comprehendible to us, gives us assurance of Your caring and want of our wellbeing and our salvation with You in Heaven. 

 

We have a stumbling block in us though Jesus that we need Your help with everyday of our lives: it is sin, from our sinful nature.  The world is after us, hell-bent on taking us away from You. Unfortunately, this happens. The temptations are too overwhelming for some and they don’t take the escape You provide. The fall, they fail, and they get so far from You that the world gets them to believe that they don’t need You or they are not good enough for You.

 

We face temptation every day. It is thrown in our faces endlessly. Temptation and sin are always around the corner and knocking on the door of our minds.  We fail for we are imperfect creatures, but give us the strength to learn from our mistakes and give us grace as we ask for it when we do sin. 

 

Remind us who we are on a daily basis. Remind us who we are to You and give our hearts comfort and strength to drive on. Help us to stay on the straight and narrow path leading to heaven.  Help us to not fail You, but help us to grow in our love and relationship with You as our days go on and Your reappearance draws near.  Keep us strong in You so we can overcome and resist Satan. Dwell in us Jesus. Keep us striving to keep You in our hearts every moment of the day.

 

“For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee.” (Isaiah 54:10)

 

Continue to have mercy on those of us that love You Lord.  You are our Rock and our Steadfast Love.  You promise that Your kindness will not depart from us and You have given us a covenant of peace.  Let us be faithful in these promises. Let us place them in our heart and lock them in our minds and souls.  You are the great I Am and let us never forget this. Let us never forget Your ever and unending love for us.  Your promises You don’t break and Your love is too great for us to ever imagine.

 

Give us peace in this world full of those things contrary to You and the turmoil that is happening around us every minute of each day.  Let us be thankful for Your promises of peace and kindness towards us.  Keep us safe in Your hands. Be our Rock when the oceans rage. Be our shelter when as the storm around us intensifies.  We trust in You and Your promises Lord. You are our peace and strength.

 

“Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.” (Romans 12:9)

 

Lord, let our love for You be with genuine love, without dissimulation.  Teach us to avoid evil and to hold on to what is good in Your eyes. Some people who say they are Christians don’t have a genuine love for You. They just go through the motions. They go to church and that is it; they think it is good enough for You. 

Give those people a sense of needing more Lord. They are lost and help those of us who genuinely love You to help them find that true love for You.  Give us the strength and power to move these people. Give them the hope of a better future-a future of eternity with You.  Not everyone who thinks they are Christians are in the Book of Life, but let us add pages for You.

In the world we live in, we are surrounded by on all sides by evil. The world is pure evil and fights against us daily. We are hit on all sides by the world and Satan to break us from loving and wanting to be with You. Give us the insight to recognize evil for what it is, no matter how sneaky Satan and the world are with their temptations to us.  Help us to overcome and be our escape. If and when we do fail and give into temptation, be with us as we ask for Your forgiveness and pour out Your grace upon us.

“Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name. He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him. With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.” (Psalm 91: 14-16)

Lord, let us hold fast to our love for You. You are there for us and we need You more than any other time in history for time is shorter as each day passes. The world is in a mess and Your prophesies are being fulfilled in this season of eternity.  You are our hope and through Christ have covered our sins and have promised eternity with You in heaven if we believe that Christ died for our sins and offered grace to us for our sins.  We thank You for this and want nothing more than to be with You in heaven.

When we pray Lord, please heed our prayers and answer us in a way that we know it is You and You alone.  You are the light of the world and with You there is no darkness in us.  Keep us out of the shadows of the world. Keep Satan at bay in our lives and give us the power, through You, to resist Satan. 

You are our life and our hope. Keep us close to You and shepherd us to wisdom and knowledge of Your greatness and power.  Give us the strength to endure to the end and give us the hope and faith in Christ our Savior.

John_lysaught@yahoo.com

Being Humble

“And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.”

(Matthew 23:12)

 

What does being humble mean? We use it all the time when we talk of Christ and our faith, but do we really know what it means. The dictionary says it is meekness or modesty in behavior, attitude, or spirit; not arrogant or prideful. Now that we know this, we can have a better frame of context as we talk about being humble.

 

We need to be humble before Christ.  If we let pride or arrogance in ourselves to take over, especially in our spiritual life, God always finds a way to give us a piece of humble pie. Right?  Works that way for me.  I used to be very proud, prideful, and arrogant before I knew Christ. Even when I was saved these attributes held on to me for quite some time. 

 

Though since, Christ has taught me to be humble before Him and others.  My biggest challenge at that time was being humble before others. I lacked wisdom but not knowledge and so I would think I was better than others in education, life experience, and general everyday things. What Christ taught me was to be humble. 

 

The times I was arrogant and such, Christ would turn it around on me and I would be humbled.  After I became humble, after all those lessons, I live a more peaceful life. What God has taught me was to be humble towards others.  By being humble to others, I found that I get along with just about anyone and can learn something new from each person I meet, whether it be knowledge of something or wisdom. 

 

Once I learned to be humble with others, I learned to be humble towards Christ.  You would think it would be the other way around, but for me, Christ showed me to be humble towards others before I learned to be humble towards Him. 

 

What I learned was that when I exalted myself, I was not humble but arrogant in my ways. Yet when I humbled myself to others and Christ, I was blessed and could better express my love for Christ towards others through a meekness that showed I was willing to learn and set myself aside for others.

 

The sad part is that not all Christians do this and the secular world looks at us who practice this as weakness.  We’ve all met Christians who don’t practice meekness.  They are arrogant, prideful, and lack the humbleness required by Christ.  The best place to observe this is at church of course.  All you have to do is listen to people talk. Those that talk about themselves and all the great things they do for the church or the good they do for the community is not humble, but prideful.  They pride themselves on actions they do and like to brag about it so others can see how great of Christians they are.

 

Then you have the other Christians that are humble. They don’t boast about their works for Christ, but are humble about it when it is brought up, like it is no big deal.  These are truly humble people for they don’t talk about what they did for Christ but what Christ is using them for and how thankful they are for the opportunity Christ has given them to do His work. I admire these people, but they are few and far between.

 

To most secular world we are weak people. Those of us that practice humbleness are seen as weak and meek people. If you are seen that way, be happy about it for that is what we are suppose to be.  Be humble towards others and be humble towards Christ.  When we are humble towards others it shows our love and caring for people. When we are humble before Christ, we are open to His guidance and His great love for us on our path towards salvation. When humble to Christ, we have a better relationship with Him for He is greater than all and deserves humbleness before Him. We have a better prayer life, better understanding of His word, and are more in tune to what He wants from us. 

 

When not humble to Christ, we tend to rely on ourselves and give credit to ourselves for our greatness, leaving Christ in the background when He should be in the foreground of praise.  Without humbleness, our relationship with Christ is not as full or fulfilling as it can be with Him.  It’s like we are taking credit for something He did in or for us and not recognizing His greatness.

 

When I write or study the bible, I pray for humbleness in these activities.  If I try to write with arrogance, without His inspiration, they are horrible writings and end up in the recycling bin on my computer. If I try to study the bible without being meek in knowledge and wisdom, I just don’t get the full picture or message. Yet when I am humble, I find I learn more from the bible and I write better messages than relying on myself to do so. 

 

“With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love…” (Ephesians 4:2)

 

“To speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, shewing all meekness unto all men.” (Titus 3:2)

 

When I meet people, I remind myself to be humble towards them. I remind myself that I’m not better than them.  When I do this, I’m amazed at what I can glean from people. When I’ve met homeless people and act humble towards them, I learn a lot about them and learn lessons about life from them that I take away. Not only does it bless me but it blesses them because they feel they are equal to me, which they are in the eyes of Christ. 

 

I find also that when I meet people and act humble towards them, they respond in a different way than the other guy or gal who was rude and arrogant.  It’s like being humble spreads love and peace around you. By doing so, you are emulating Christ and your light of Him shines to others. Be humble to others and not only will you bless them with the light of Christ, but you will be blessed knowing that you showed love to another and may just get the opportunity to share Christ to someone.

 

“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.” 1 Pete 5:8

 

You know who doesn’t want you to be humble? You guessed it-Satan.  Oh how he doesn’t want you to be humble towards anyone and especially Christ. He wants to kill, steal, and destroy. He doesn’t want you to have a relationship with Christ or show love to others. He wants you to be proud. He wants pride to rule your life. He likes it when you are arrogant and show no meekness.  Why? Because this lack of humbleness will separate you from God. How can you be humble only on Sunday’s but be everything contrary the other six days of the week. 

 

Remember, Satan wants your soul with him in hell and he’ll do anything to get you to give your soul to him. There are many ways he does this and one is to take away your humbleness.  By taking away your humbleness towards Christ, he makes a barrier between you and your maker.  He’s sneaky at this and will chip away at you so you have to be strong enough to recognize his ways and resist.

 

Pride is a strong thing to have and to avoid. Pride is easy to get and if not kept in check, will grow and grow until it has overpowered you. What will Satan do to make you prideful? He will use your faith against you. What you do for Christ, Satan will try his best to get you to think it was all you and not Christ.  It may be little at first, but he will make it grow and grow until you are the one at church boasting about all the good YOU do and talk only about yourself and your good deeds.  This is a no-no. 

 

Arrogance is another tactic used by Satan to separate you from your Savior.  You’ve seen them, those people who are chosen to hold special status in Church that regular members aren’t part of. They can be Sunday school teachers, council members, etc. I’ve seen these people and there is a sense of arrogance about them that makes them seem they are better than others because of a status they hold at church.  When I was the council president, I was humbled by the opportunity and felt heavy responsibility of what I was responsible for. I didn’t boast and really, no one knew I was part of the council. I was humble and that is the way it is suppose to be.

 

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.” (Ephesians 2:8)

 

Be humble my fellow servants of Christ. We found grace through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross for us and because of this, He deserves, no it is commanded, that we be humble towards Him.  Regardless of where you walk with Christ is- a beginner or an old hand, remember to be humble to Him. Humbleness takes practice and mindfull effort on our part to always practice humbleness towards our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

 

He didn’t die on a cross for us to not be humble to Him and His teachings or ways, but to be humble in actions and spirit to Him and others.  If you are having a hard time being humble, or don’t know how to be humble, pick up that bible of yours and read it.  Christ was humble towards man and there are a plethora of examples in the Gospels of His humbleness and His examples of being humble. 

 

Recognize that Christ is our Lord. See that He is above us. Know that He loves you. Most of all though, be humble in spirit to Him when studying and praying to Him.

 

With all blessings.

 

John_lysaught@yahoo.com

Carry Me

“Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be move,” (Psalm 55:22).

After I went to basic training in the Army, I was driven across the post and dropped off at Officer Candidate School, the hardest commissioning source of the Army.  The school was 16 weeks of pure torment.  The last exercise we did, called a capstone, was to road march out to the training area 18 miles away. While there, we got little sleep and did maneuvers for a week. We were in full gear with weapons and this was in August of a hot Georgia summer.  I began to get dehydrated on the road march to the training area and was never able to get rehydrated the entire time we were there because we were always on the go. 

The day the exercise ended, we were suppose to leave in the morning at first light but it was too hot and humid and so they made us sit in the sun until midnight before we left.  So here we are, walking another 18 miles back to the main post to our school. I was dehydrated, drinking water like a horse to try to stay coherent enough to walk at a pretty fast pace. This was hard for me because I’m short and so I would fall behind and then would have to run to keep the pacing distance accurate every few minutes.  Now mind you, with all the gear on we were each lugging about 50 extra pounds. Not too bad for the bigger guys but I’m 5’6” and was at 165lbs so it was harder for me. To make things worse, at one point they made me carry a tripod for the M-60 and the M-60, adding another 30 or so pounds to my load. 

We were at the last two miles and I was getting delirious because of dehydration. Even though we were walking at night, it was still 100% humidity and was in the 90’s.  I was almost collapsing and could barely walk.  Now if I couldn’t finish the road march, I would have to do the 16 week course all over again, so I was determined to finish.  During those last two miles, my fellow officers began to take the load off of me.  They took my rucksack off my back, my LBE (holds things like ammo, water and other gear) and took my weapon from me. That helped and they were feeding me their water to help me keep going.  Didn’t work so well.

The last mile or so, I was stumbling from exhaustion of being dehydrated. Two of my fellow officers wrapped their arms around me and helped me walk the rest of the mile back into our school grounds, the finish line. 

This event reminds me of Christ.  In my road march near the end when I couldn’t bear anymore, my burden (equipment) was taken off me and I was helped to the end.  Christ does this for us as well.

When you are at your last step and can’t carry anything anymore, if you let Him, Christ will lift those burdens off of you and carry you through your time of trouble.  This is an amazing aspect of Christ’s love for us; that He cares for each one of us so much that He will take the weight of the world off our shoulders, lift us up, put His arm around our shoulder and help us through.   

“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light,” (Matthew 11: 28-30).

Personally, I think we forget to give our burdens to Christ and find rest in Him.  When I was basically being carried the last mile, it was such a relief really to just move my legs and not worry about my weight on my feet.  I remember that after the march was over and I collapsed onto the ground and had water poured on my and had my clothes stripped off me due to being overheated and dehydrated, I was so relieved and savored the rest I was getting from myself by letting others take care of me.  This is what Christ does for us. We give Him our burdens and he gives us rest in Him.  I can still feel the relief of that moment when the march was over and can remember clearly how relieved I was.  This, I have been lacking in Christ, and I think we all do the same thing: we forget to give to God.

We all have burdens in our life that we try to take care of ourselves, both physically and spiritually.  Physically, we all have faced some ailment or suffer from chronic illnesses.  I, with many chronic illnesses, have failed many times to lay those burdens on Christ to help me through the flares of my conditions that leave me in agony and pain.  I try my best to deal with them on my own and leave Christ out of the picture.  Only when I can’t take it anymore, when I’m on the edge of desperation, do I seek Christ for help. What I should do is seek His help when I feel the burdens of my conditions starting.

For me it is a stubbornness thing with my physical ailments, whether my anklosing spondilitis is acting up, my fibromyalgia or Chron’s is causing pain, or when my bipolar swings start getting out of control, I fight with myself to try to gain control. Any you know what? It never works. Never ever. I suffer and suffer and only when I come to my senses and ask Christ for relief do I feel better, even if it just enough for me to get through the rest of the day.  He knows me better than I know myself and I can imagine Him looking at me, just waiting for me to invite Him to help me.  This is a work in me that I continue to battle with and by writing this, it will remind me to lean on Him more. 

Spiritually, we all have burdens. Mostly sin of course, but our souls need to be fed and developed.  Worry, stress, anxiety, fear, self-worth and such are all burdens we face or have faced at one time or another.  For me, I’m better at leaning on Christ for these burdens to be lifted than I am with my physical problems.  When I feel like I’m falling behind on my studies and pray life because of spiritual distractions, I pray to Him to help me and I get reenergized.  This is a weekly thing for me, but I know He is faithful and gives me the motivation and desire to delve into His word and prayer when I ask for that rejuvenation. 

Then there is the battle of our spirit against sin: our biggest burden. We face and live in a world so full of sin that it isn’t even called sin anymore, it is called ever day life.  As saved folks, we see the sin of the world and all the sin surrounding us. Oh, there are lots of temptations around every corner we turn.  Media and the entertainment industry is probably the biggest propagandist for sinful living.  Look at commercials. Look at the new season’s shows on TV. Watch a movie. Listen to the radio. It’s all smut. It bombards us most of the day. It makes sin seem so natural and normal.  I’m only 39 and so I can’t say look at the mid-20^th century to see the values, for values started slipping when I was growing up in the 80’s and 90’s. Yet, even I can look back and see the change in societal norms and how they have gone downhill. 

Flaunting homosexuality and lustful scenes on television was not around when I was young or a teenager.  Kid’s shows were fun to watch and didn’t shove alternative lifestyles down our throats like they do now.  Sex was still a taboo to talk about, but now it is advertised as normal to have multiple partners and is okay to stray from your spouse.  Whatever happened to clean television shows.  Now they push the edge further and further. A majority of television shows are focused on violence, sex, or evil. I’ve especially noticed the darkness of some shows now that I’ve seen advertisements for.  No thanks.  Don’t need that.

The burden of sin is great.  Don’t be fooled by society. They want to shun us Christians, isolate us, and would rather us not exist so they can run amuck with filth.  They want us Christians to fall because then they can point their fingers at us and mock our faith.  Society wants Christians to sin to prove that we are just as bad as they are. We must fight this.  We must endure and put the burdens of these battles with our spiritual lives onto Christ so we can find rest and hope in Him.

If you don’t seek Christ for rest for the burdens of your spirit, you open yourselves up to sin and sin can become a slippery slope you may not be able to climb up from.  We know the truth of God and we know this from the Holy Spirit, as our guide, of what wrong and right are.  Hebrews 10: 26-27 says: “For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.”

When you don’t let Christ carry you, you are more susceptible to falling for sin. When you get on that path it is easy to distance yourself from Christ and Christ’s sacrifice for your sins is in jeopardy. This is why we need to ensure we give our burdens to Christ so He can carry us and protect us from the world and the wiles of Satan. 

How do we battle sin? We seek rest in Christ.  We give our burdens to Him and He will give you rest. Remember what 1 Corinthians 10:13 says: “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”

What does this mean? We can avoid sin. When faced with sin, give it to Christ and He will make an escape for you so you can avoid and bear it.  Remember that Satan can’t make you sin. This is no excuse for you. When you sin, you know it is wrong but you do it anyway. Unfortunately, once you start giving into sin, you seem to do it more. The more you do it, the more distance comes between you and Christ. The next thing you know, you are in so much sin, you aren’t even on the road to salvation anymore, but on a dusty side road, so dusty you can’t even see your hand in front of your face from so much sin.

If this is you or you are headed this way or know someone who is, this can be rectified. Forgiveness is freely given.  Give the burdens of your sins to Christ that have kept you from Him and He will freely forgive you and will give you rest.  He will help you get back onto the path of salvation.

On the road march of life, when you are falling in the last mile, ready to collapse, plead to Christ to take your burden away, to carry you, and He will. Not only will He do this, but He will give your soul much needed rest in Him and through Him. He’s there waiting for you, just answer the door.

John_lysaught@yahoo.com

 

 

 

Joy

“For our heart shall rejoice in him, because we have trusted in his holy name” (Psalm 33:21).

The world puts a snag in the fabric of Psalms 33:21, doesn’t it? Let’s be honest here, really. We don’t always have joy in our hearts for Christ because the world gets in the way of the rejoicing. The world makes us lose our focus.

I want to talk about joylessness, the lack of joy, unhappiness, or what ever you want to call it: The opposite of joy. We’ve all faced it and probably are facing anti-joy in some parts of our life right now. Think about it for just a moment. See, you probably thought of something.

Where are you lacking joy in your heart that’s separating you from Christ?

I know someone who used to be a preacher and is having an affair with a married women who is the same age as his oldest daughter. Talk about cradle robbing, right? He denies the affair but when this woman is over at his house every day at all hours, one can only assume one thing. This is beside the point. The point is he does not have joy in his heart anymore for Christ. He is separated from Christ, or I should say he has separated himself from Christ.

He used to be a close friend and mentor to me, but he now avoids me and my family like the plague. His kids don’t even come over anymore after we confronted him about the affair to which he said he and the woman are just really, really good friends. Can you say discernment? Anyway I digress. The spark of joy that he used to have that I saw in him is gone, squished out like two wet fingers putting a candle out. Puff, gone.

He let Satan snag him, catch him, and has squashed the joy he used to have. Sure ,he feels worldly joy, but spiritual joy? That’s gone. Joy is not in his heart and now he has this emptiness in his heart, I assume. As knowledgeable as he is in the Word, he cannot recognize it anymore because he has been blinded by Satan. This shows you that no matter your knowledge or status in Christ, if you let that door to Satan open, you can be pulled into his world and influenced to choose him over Christ.

Where is your joy in Christ quashed? Are you frustrated with, oh, I don’t know, finances maybe? This is a big joy dumper for many a people. Scared to look online at your account balance everyday? Ha, that is how I was this pay period. I looked and boom, I still have a little bit to my name, today at least.

I’m not very joyful of this and I put myself in this debt position so it is my fault, but how can I find joy in such a little amount to my name. It gets in the way with my relationship with Christ because I’m not focusing on Him at the moment but my troubles with money instead. I’m not looking for pity, but just using an example.

See, something even like finances can get in the way of joy in your heart for Christ. How? Well, money is a worldly thing and the things we buy are worldly. The world causes us trouble and challenges that can affect our faith. We may end up blaming God for our money problems or that he hasn’t fixed them for us. This can cause us to put a damper on our joyous heart for Christ.

What about addiction? There is definitely no joy in Christ when one is high on crack, meth, cocaine, heroin, or whatever else there is out there nowadays. This is for sure worldly joy that Satan uses to keep the joy of Christ away from the hearts of addicts.

How can an addict proclaim to rejoice in Christ when they are drunk or high? I don’t know. I’ve seen it, I’ve smelled the words out of the mouths of drunks, but don’t understand how one could speak out of both sides of their mouths. This just frustrates me a bit. I can go on and on but I think the gist is taken.

There are parts of our lives that are interrupted by the world and ourselves—taking joy from our hearts and take it away from our relationship with Christ. Hold on a second. I just had an idea. I want to read the verse backward (Psalm 33:21). It’s like a logical statement to me and it may make a little more sense:

Because we have trusted in his holy name, our heart shall rejoice in him. Makes me look at this a little differently. And it makes me shameful because there are parts of my life where I haven’t trusted in Him. Reading it this way makes me feel as small as a mouse. By trusting in His name my heart shall rejoice in Him. We’ve failed at this and I’ve failed at this.

Aren’t there times when we haven’t trusted in Christ? Come on now, be honest. Even if it was 10 years ago or 10 days ago, at one point and at some points, we have not trusted His holy name. We lacked trust in Him for some thing in our lives that we needed fixed and it didn’t happen.

When that thing failed, we didn’t have joy in Him. An unanswered prayer? A desire to do something great to change the world? It could be anything, but we lost hope in Him. For some this is just for a moment and then their senses are brought back in line. For others, they have turned their back on Jesus because of this.

Now joy in Christ is and should be just that: Joy! Regardless of what is going on in our lives, we need to remember that certain things are constant. The bad constant is that, at least till the end, Satan is always going to be nipping at our heels day in and day out. The good constant is Jesus and the joy we have with Him to include the mercy, grace, and salvation He has given to His elect: All true believers!

Satan will try and try to get you away from Christ. Really though, he can’t. It would be your decision to let go of Christ by giving into temptation, just like my old pastor and his affair. Satan didn’t make him do it; he chose to do it. He chose temptation (lust) over Christ. He will be in for quite a surprise if he doesn’t repent of this and get back on track. When I have seen him, I can see that spark gone in his eyes. I see a miserable man. I see a man who knows he is doing wrong, but denies it and chooses to continue in sin. No joy in his heart for Christ.

James 1:2-3 says:“My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.”

Now why would the Bible say to have joy when faced with temptations?

To me it is because by facing trials and overcoming them, we grow in strength in our relationship with Christ. I’m not talking about a worldly trial, like choosing the Honda or Toyota to buy. I’m talking about a temptation, facing a sin, standing face to face with a decision that may change your relationship with Christ. What you do matters.

When faced with temptation, there are two choices to make. Give in or avoid. Giving into temptations is a very bad thing to do, but you know that. Avoiding them is a good thing and builds us up in Christ and He rejoices with us that we turned our back on temptation. What happens when we do give into temptation? We suffer.

We feel and are separated from Christ when we fall into temptations. It’s what you do after you fail that is important. You ask for forgiveness and move forward. The great thing is that when you get back in line with Christ, you move forward where you left off. You don’t have to start all over again, but just begin moving forward again.

If you don’t turn back from Christ, you will begin to go downhill pretty fast and will continue to sin and sin. You will be sucked so deep by Satan that you will feel helpless to come back to Christ. You can though, through repentance and turning your back on your old ways. All it takes is that first step. Come on, you can do it!

Romans 15:13, “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Spirit.”

You read this? We will be filled with joy and peace in believing and grow through the power of the Holy Spirit with Christ. The Holy Spirit is so intertwined with our joy for God that he is always in us, directing us to holiness so we can have joy and peace.

The Holy Spirit directs us to stay on the path of righteousness. Even when faced with temptations, he is with us. He tells us “don’t do it” when faced with a temptation.

He is with us to protect us and to lead us away from the bad things and decisions we may make that are contrary to Christ.

Yet if we ignore the Holy Spirit, he is still with us. He wants to lead us back to the joy in Christ and if we listen to him, the Holy Spirit will make a way for us to do this.

John 16:33: “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”

I think that this is a verse to rejoice in. Christ overcame the world. No matter what happens to us, no matter what we face, Christ has overcome. The world to us should be just an annoyance like flies at a BBQ. If Christ overcame the world, we can too.

With joy in our hearts for Christ, peace comes with it.

I’ve felt that peace and joy. Have you? If not, how long has it been? When was the last time you found peace and joy in your heart? A troubled heart feels no joy but a peaceful heart does. Christ wants us to have a peaceful and joyous heart. For without it, our relationship with Him is nil. It is stagnant and not forward moving. It is something to overcome to attain that peace and joy.

To do this, we must discover Christ again. If you have had a troubled heart for a time, now is the time to seek peace and with that peace, joy will be manifested. Even if your heart is troubled just a little bit, that wholeness with Christ will be missing. Our troubled heart will be a roadblock to Him without peace and joy in our heart.

To get peace and the joy, we must do one simple thing: Ask for it. Seek peace, pray for peace, and yearn for it. Don’t ever give up seeking Christ and the peace and joy he can give you. There will be no regrets in doing so. There will be no pain in seeking peace. There may need to be changes in your lifestyle, but you can trust that the Holy Spirit will urge you to make those changes to attain a greater relationship with Christ.

Having Christ in your life is the key to having peace in this horrible world we live in now. Having joy in Christ will keep you motivated and on track to salvation. There is nothing this world has to offer that can give you the joy in your heart like Christ does. Nothing.

If your having a hard time with this, examine yourself to see where the shortfalls are in your relationship with Christ that are causing a lack of peace and joy in your heart for Him. Pray and ask for help from Christ. Seek guidance through deep study of the Word. Get reconnected with Christ and you will have joy in your heart.

If you have joy in your heart already, water it and let the roots grow deeper. Don’t be static in your relationship with Him, but always seek more of Him. Seek Christ daily, every moment you have; have Him on your mind and in your thoughts.

Be an example to others of the joy you have for Christ. Mentor people by living the example of who Christ is and what He wants from us. Find joy in God!