Dear Precious Friends,
I pray you have an amazing Fill our Soul Sunday and start the day praising the Lord for a new day, a new season and knowing this is the day the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it!!! Each morning I ask the Lord what He wants me to share and it always takes me on an amazing journey because it always included what I need to hear and live. This is a little longer but so worth taking in!!!
It starts with beginning the day with open hands of faith, ready to receive all that He is pouring into us.
The spirit of Heaviness is something I have battled with and I believe most everyone who is human battles with this...that is until you know what to do and what God's word reminds us to do:
Here are some of the symptoms:
Depression, discouragement, abnormal grieving, rejection, self pity, whining, despair, hopelessness, loneliness, gloominess.
So as always we go to God's word, our ABSOLUTE TRUTH to know what to do.
"Put on The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.’ Isaiah 61:3 NKJV
WOW WOW WOW!! Praise Him!!! In the middle of my deep sorrow, grief, depression, circumstance???? WWWHHHAAT????
Praise works like a magnifying glass. It causes what we are focusing on to get bigger, to be ‘magnified’. Instead of focusing on our circumstances we focus on our Lord!!!
David said, ‘Magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together. I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.’ (Psalm 34:3–4 NKJV)
Praise is one of the great Scriptural keys to problem-solving because it gets your focus on God, the problem solver.
Charles Spurgeon said: ‘My joyful moments are when I am worshipping God, really adoring the Lord Jesus Christ… In that worship I forget the cares of the church and everything else. To me it is the nearest approach to what it will be in Heaven.’
God has promised us ‘the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.’ It works like this. When we begin to praise Him with a heavy heart, we experience a new sense of hope and joy. Through worship we are reminded that God is bigger than the situation we face; that He’s not only capable of managing our concerns but willing, wanting and waiting to.
The Psalmist wrote: ‘Seven times a day I praise You.’ (Psalm 119:164 NKJV)
So a great way to start...
Fill our day with praise. Don’t just take coffee breaks and tea breaks, take ‘praise breaks.’
Begin to praise God for two things:
(1) His attributes. His power, love, grace, favor, guidance, etc. who He is and what He has done!
(2) His acts. Recall His goodness to you. Go ahead; take off the spirit of heaviness and put on the garment of praise.
I have to say when I listen to true worship music and sing the words out loud, I can't help but be changed!!
When I think of the many examples in God's word, I find myself in awe of the Apostle Paul.
How could Paul write Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice..... ? Where was he when he wrote this? He was in a prison cell... how can He write the joy of the Lord is my strength... Where are you Paul? Oh I'm in prison chained to soldiers, I've been beaten but I'm writing about joy...I'm supposed to be killed tomorrow but I'm rejoicing in the Lord... WHAT!!! Upon deeper study we find it doesn't mean we won't ever feel depressed or sad...
The Bible is realistic and balanced. We must look at the totality of Scripture rather than taking a verse like this as if it were all that is written on the subject. It’s interesting that the shortest verse in the Greek New Testament is, “Rejoice always” (1 Thess. 5:16). The shortest verse in the English New Testament is, “Jesus wept” (John 11:35). They are not contradictory! Our Savior could weep and yet have the fullness of joy, even as He faced the cross (John 15:11). Paul commands us to weep with those who weep (Rom. 12;15), and yet to rejoice always. The Bible says that godly people are marked both by mourning (over sin, Matt. 5:4; James 4:9; 5:1) and yet by irrepressible joy. Scripture acknowledges that discipline and trials are not joyful at the moment, but that afterward they yield the peaceful fruit of righteousness if we submit to God (Heb. 12:11; John 16:20-22).
Thus we would misapply Paul’s words if we took him to mean that a Christian should deny or never feel sadness or grief. The Psalms are helpful in this regard. The psalmist often is overwhelmed with despair or sadness, and he readily acknowledges his feelings to God. He never puts on a happy face and denies the intensity of his troubles.
HERE IS THE KEY: In the process of crying out to God for help and re-focusing his thoughts on the Lord and His great mercies, by the end of the psalm his mood has changed, even though his circumstances are no different. So the psalmist often experiences a flood of God’s joy even in the midst of tremendous pain. Thus to rejoice in the Lord always does not mean that we deny our feelings or that we stoically endure our trials by ignoring how much we hurt.
Everyone wants joy in life. On the surface, Paul’s words, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!” are some of the simplest in Scripture to read and understand. But when you scratch beneath the surface, they raise a pile of questions: Is it really possible to rejoice always? What does this mean? Am I supposed to go around with a perpetual smile on my face? Is it a sin to feel depressed or sad? Am I supposed to deny pain or sorrow? How can you command a feeling, anyway? Are these the words of a bubbly, incurable optimist, or what? Just reading the verse might get some people depressed, because they despair of ever being able to do it!
We need to recognize that what Paul commands here is not just a cheerful disposition, which many have by nature, but rather something that requires supernatural power--it is joy IN the Lord.
And, while we may never perfectly attain such joy in this troubled world, Paul repeats the command for emphasis, as if to say, “It is possible, so don’t shrug off what I am saying.” His emphatic words show us ...
Abiding joy in the Lord is the aim of every Christian.
God tells us more than anything else, in different ways, to “praise the Lord,” “do not be afraid,” “rejoice,” and “give thanks” — all of which are commands, in essence, to receive and live the Fruit of the Spirt of joy.
Don’t move past this too quickly. Let it sink in: more than anything else, God commands us to have joy. God wants us to be truly, deeply joyful. Not just in heaven someday. Not when circumstances take a turn for the better. Not when the sorrow or the darkness finally lifts. God wants you to taste real joy today. Now.
HERE ARE SOME AMAZING HILLSONG WORSHIP SONGS THAT LAST AN HOUR AND 40 MINUTES..
WOW.. this is amazing truth. I pray it encourages you as it has me. Let's all commit to this and be so filled with Him, others can't help but want what we have.
I pray each of you have an amazing day knowing God wants us to exchange the spirit of heaviness for joy and for us to taste real joy today and every day.
AMEN!
