Growing Together – Day 5: Joy
Have you ever noticed how hard it is to be happy when you’re not happy? Maybe that’s a silly sentence, but I’ve found it to be true. If I don’t change the way I think about my circumstances, but instead I just try to will myself to happiness – I find that everything in my head and heart is working against me. It must start with a change of perspective. The Psalm writers knew this. I have listed three Psalm selections that show writers preaching truth to themselves, regaining perspective, reframing their circumstances in light of the Almighty God who loved Him.
READ: Psalm 22: 1-5
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?
2 O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer,
and by night, but I find no rest.
3 Yet you are holy,
enthroned on the praises of Israel.
4 In you our fathers trusted;
they trusted, and you delivered them.
5 To you they cried and were rescued;
in you they trusted and were not put to shame.
Psalm 56:1-4
Be gracious to me, O God, for man tramples on me;
all day long an attacker oppresses me;
2 my enemies trample on me all day long,
for many attack me proudly.
3 When I am afraid,
I put my trust in you.
4 In God, whose word I praise,
in God I trust; I shall not be afraid.
What can flesh do to me?
Psalm 73:26-28
My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
27 For behold, those who are far from you shall perish;
you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.
28 But for me it is good to be near God;
I have made the Lord God my refuge,
that I may tell of all your works.
RESPOND: Write three simple sentences – on your phone, on a 3x5 card, in an email to yourself…wherever.
First sentence: write a true statement about how God has taken care of those, in the past, who have loved Him.
Second sentence: write down the truth about God that you tend to forget when times get difficult.
Third sentence: write a true statement about God’s eternal inheritance that is waiting for you (waiting for all those who love Him).
If you’d like more reading over the weekend, CHECK OUT: Psalms 13, 16, 46, and 56.