David, in Psalms 51 writes (and I love the Message's translation of this): "God, make a fresh start in me, shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life. Don't throw me out with the trash, or fail to breathe holiness in me. Bring me back from gray exile, put a fresh wind in my sails!"
"Shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life." Bring out something new in the midst of the same ole drudgery.
It's easy to lose the joy that we once had not only in life but in our relationship with God.
Earlier in his life, David overflowed with joy.
He sings on a hillside as a shepherd.
He dances with joy as the ark is carried into Jerusalem.
But then he commits a mistake. He blows it big time with Bathsheba, not his wife.
He loses his joy.
You might be asking, "can I get my joy back?"
YES YOU CAN!
Refuse to accept a joyless condition in your life. David, to paraphrase his words, cries out with intensity, "God, I refuse to accept this joyless condition I'm in. Bring me back from gray exile, put a fresh wind in my sails!"
Don't go for the quick fix.
Buying more things, eating more, drinking to drown or ease the pain of your feelings won't work. Pills, excessive TV or sex doesn't work. Oh, you might feel like it will work for a season, but in the end it demands more. Buying more things, eating more, drinking more, until it destroys you. You end up dry and empty.
The church father, Augustine said, "O God, our hearts are restless till we find rest in thee."
David owns up to his situation and doesn't go for the quick fix.
Remember that God is in control of your life.
Nothing is impossible with Him.
David remembers that God is able to restore his joy. He goes to the Lord in prayer.
He prays, "God, make a fresh start in me, shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life." In other words, create in me a new, clean heart. The Hebrew word for create is bara.
It's used for God creating the world.
He makes something out of nothing.
That's what God is able to do with joy in your life.
He is able to create and restore joy in your life when you have totally and completely lost it.
He can create joy out of total despair.
And then receive joy.
Open yourself up to joy.
Do that today. Open yourself up to the Holy Spirit. Realize that today can be the first day of a life filled with joy. And you will never be the same.
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Sometimes, the pressures of the day (or week or month or year) weigh heavy on our hearts and it seems that we will never rise from under them. Seeking God every day, praising and worshipping Him, never fails to bring a smile to my face and a song to my heart (and mind)...a song that I can keep throughout the day to refresh my spirit when things get rough. The Holy Spirit guides us, reminds us, and blesses us with a new joy...if we but ask! We often fail to ask, just assuming that we must survive, we must overcome, we must endure when all God says to us is, "So I tell you, ask, and God will give to you. Search, and you will find. Knock, and the door will open for you. Yes, everyone who asks will receive. And everyone who knocks will have the door opened." (Luke 11: 9-10, NCV) God loves us and wants nothing but to prosper us and bring joy to His children. Let's have faith (and take great joy) in that knowledge. Find a song (or a dozen) that will lift you up; find scripture that will encourage you when you start to fail. But, most of all, pray to your Father that He will provide you the things you need (key: NEED) to prosper and bring glory to His name. For, in all things, do them for the glory of God.
Yours in Christ,
Jon
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