Good Days and Bad
Days
"There
is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under
heaven" (Ecclesiastes 3:1).
Life's like that. Just about the time you
think you have it all figured out, some new adventure disrupts your confidence
and flies in the face of your conclusions. Nobody has life figured out. I
wrote in my journal recently: "I don't suppose it's possible to have any length
of time where you are right with the world. I had 15 minutes one day where it
just seemed everything was just right. Then the phone rang. Pfsst! Right out the
window. But then I've had times when everything was all messed up, tangled,
distorted, and disheveled. And right in the middle of my pity party the mail
comes and there's a nice note-unexpected and joyful-and for the next 15 minutes
things are right with the world again. That is, until the phone rang. Pfsst! Oh
well, the mail comes again tomorrow. Maybe
" Trying to figure life out is a
futile enterprise; one destined for sure failure.
Here
are some suggestions for making life - all of it - more pleasurable and more
useable:
Don't run from
trouble.
You
can't go fast enough. Trouble will find you. Face it head-on and with
determinate faith. There is no temptation bigger than you can bear if you put
your confidence in God (1 Cor. 10:13). And there's no problem that can't be
solved if you keep in touch with your spirituality. Even the fear of death is
conquerable if you have sufficient trust in your Master (Heb. 2:14-16, 1 Cor.
15:51-58).
Don't let
discouragement rob you.
Discouragement is one of the Devil's most
functional tools. It wrestles a man down by robbing him of his faith, and in
doing so, saps his energy to keep on. It strikes every age, every spiritual
level. It causes faith to flag and determination to become impotent. It's a
power-grabber, discouragement is. But faith is still the answer. Trusting
confidence in God will triumph over discouragement. But you have to engage it.
You have to shove your faith in front of the discouragement before it can
conquer it. Listen to what God said: "I will never leave you nor forsake
you" (Heb. 13:5). Do you believe it?
Remember, down
doesn't have to mean out.
Just
because you lose a battle now and then doesn't mean you've lost the war. Pick
yourself up, dust yourself off, and get back into the fracas again. There's work
to be done, people to see, prayers to make, lessons to learn. Activity is the
key to winning. Don't every quit. Only the weak quit. "Brethren, I count no
myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things
which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press
toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus"
(Paul, in Phil. 3:13-14). "I press," said Paul. You must do so too, for
he closes the admonition with "Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be
thus minded." Are you?
And remember, most
of all, that you and God make a majority.
There
is no force on earth strong enough to separate you from His love and to keep you
out of His kingdom. Not even death itself can do it. Certainly, we may boldly
say, "
the Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do to
me." Paul said, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall
tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or
sword?
Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors, through Him that
loved us." Stay with God and you can't lose, folks.
And
finally, remember that Solomon said, "In the day of prosperity rejoice; in
the day of adversity consider, for God hath set the one over against the
other
" (Eccles. 7:14). Don't try to second-guess Providence, or ask "why
me?" Relax and let it happen. Don't ask, "Why has God allowed this?" Rather,
ask, "What does He want me to do with this?" Allow the good days to cause
rejoicing. Allow the bad ones to increase your learning.
Life
is happy for those who love God and are keeping His commandments, no matter what
comes along. After all, life is constructed of two things: good days and bad
days.
---Dee
Bowman
From The Eastside Enlightener,
Bulletin of the Eastside
church in Athens, AL
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