We are all guilty of this. Our tongues have more power than we think. Like anything else we have in this world it can be used for good or bad.
Thinking before we speak, quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to anger, and asking God for His help in helping be conscious and aware of ourselves. It’s so easy for our fuses to go off and unintentionally hurt someone or God. This takes practice and awareness, but with God all things are possible. Matthew 19:26
Recently, I have heard the statement in some form, that God doesn’t want us happy. If so, then what does He want us, sad? The word sullen comes to my mind when I hear this. I find it hard to believe that being happy is not in God’s plan for us. Perhaps what is being said needs a little more, there has to be more to this statement. I do believe God wants more than us to just be happy.
What is happiness? Happiness is an emotion. We need to be in control of our emotions, James 1:19-20 “slow to anger,” Ephesians 4:26-27 – “be angry and sin not.” Happiness is a choice, like love, we can choose who to love, how to love, when to love. We feel the affects of love when someone does something nice for us or is speaking our love language. Much like being offended, when we are offended by something or what someone says, we can feel offended and that’s on us. No one can make us feel a certain way without our permission. I think it was Eleanor Roosevelt who said that. So happiness is an emotion that we can control and is a choice.
There is happiness in obedience and I believe they go hand in hand. Like the song says,”Trust and obey for there is no other way to be happy in Jesus than to trust and obey.” “When happiness is commanded, happiness is obedience.”
God wants us happy. It’s our choice to be happy about what He asks of us. We can choose to serve with gladness or not.
How many times have we all prayed a prayer, “Father, please be with…” I started to think, why do we ask that? We already know that God is omnipresent. Deuteronomy 31:8 “It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.”
Jeremiah 23:24 – “Can a man hide himself in hiding places So I do not see him?” declares the Lord. “Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?” declares the Lord.”
Think back to the Garden when God came looking for Adam. He was there. Nothing goes unseen by God. So why do we feel the need to ask? Habit perhaps?
So maybe there’s a better way to pray. I realize I don’t need to ask but to recognize whether I feel His presence or not, He is with me. I know this because the Bible says so, so many time throughout scripture. I thank God for His being with me, for His omnipresence, that He will never leave me or forsake me and I acknowledge that He said so in His Word. I thank Him for being with whomever is needing prayer at the moment, because I know He is. He promised to never leave us or forsake us.
If God says this in the Old Testament and repeats it again in the New Testament, then He not only means it but it pertains to us still today. Hebrews 13:5 “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”
We have a big God. Thank Him for being ever so present.
Happy Friday! I used to get my undies in a bunch over messes, dirty dishes, and my home not ready for Better Homes and Gardens to come in a take amazing pictures of my home. But who lives like that? I have wasted too much energy on trying to have my home perfect and always looking like a magazine. What I learned, it’s ok that my house isn’t perfect, it’s ok that I have piles of books and papers on the kitchen counter. It’s ok I have baskets of dirty laundry and clean laundry. It’ ok the bed went unmade. And it’s really ok the sink has dirty dishes, it means we ate. Some folks don’t have that luxury. The fact that I have a mess and dirty dishes in the sink means I have been out living life, doing things, living the life God gave me. Those messes will get taken care of when someone has the time to clean them.
Ok so my house isn’t a pig sty. I do clean. But I stopped to evaluate what was most important, people or a messy home. My home may have a mess here and there, but it’s a clean mess. I try not to take for granted that I am healthy enough to make a mess and clean it. So I wrote a little poem to help remind me. Enjoy. (ok it’s a little off, but so is my house)
I am thankful for the dirty dishes
in my sink,
for I am healthy enough to dirty them,
eat and drink.
I am thankful for the dirty clothes in the basket,
for I’m healthy enough to dirty them,
and nothing but washing will mask it.
I am thankful for the messes that lie about,
un-made beds, a pile of clothes , papers strewn – a thought without,
for I am healthy enough to make those messes.
Now I pray for the energy to clean,
as the Lord continues to blesses.
©thekedganchor.com2022
Happy Fall! Fall is here! Enjoy coloring and relaxing today with a hot cuppa something as you memorize scripture.
The Kedge Anchor 
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