An article entitled Share Your Good News & You Will Be Better by Emma Seppala, describes psychologists' research on the joys of sharing joy. Of course we share our joys, right? We enjoy being joyful, right?
In fact, the article explains that while most of us have 3 times as many positive experiences as negative experiences, the abundance of joyful experiences can serve to diminish them. We take joyfulness for granted and instead focus our attention on negative experiences.
Seppala recommends making daily lists of things you feel grateful for. She says being intentional about noticing those people, events & things that make you feel joyful, improves your psychological & physical health & sense of well-being. Gratitude & joyfulness "improves our ability to connect with others, boosts our tendencies to want to help others, makes us optimistic & happier, decreases envy & materialism, & even improves health for people with physical ailments," she writes.
My family & friends make me feel grateful; they know all my bad points & still love me. I also enjoy reading & learning about family history; I just started a class on DNA, by our local genealogical society. I like working out at the gym, which gives me more energy, strength, endurance, & more deep sleep. I'm grateful for our warm home on cold days. I am grateful for God who is so faithful to me.
I am blessed to share my good news with you. Now, start your own list of people, events, & things that make you feel joyful. Then share your good news with someone else. It will warm your heart on a cold day. Sharing your joy will give you more joy.
Showing posts with label joy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label joy. Show all posts
Friday, February 16, 2018
Friday, December 8, 2017
Busting Holiday Stress: 6 Ways to Make the Season Happy & Healthy
Lynn
Allison
https://www.newsmax.com/health/health-news/holiday-stress-buster/2017/12/07/id/830539/
“The key to making this season happy — and maybe for the first time in your adult life — is to examine the triggers that cause your stress and diffuse them before they explode,” Kuriansky says.
“And that means being honest with yourself and your limitations. We all know the serenity prayer that reminds us to know the difference between what we can control and what we can’t. The source of discontentment during this busy season is not being realistic — not truly seeing our situation for what is, and expecting people and things to change.”
According to a report compiled by the American Psychological Association, holiday stress has the greatest impact on women who customarily take charge of many of the holiday celebrations — particularly the tasks of preparing the meals and decorating the home.
Women are also most likely to be the ones shopping for and wrapping gifts. They have a harder time relaxing during the holidays and are more likely to fall into bad habits to manage their stress, like comfort eating.
"Studies show that our appetite for sweets increases quite dramatically when we experience chronic stress which makes the holiday season prime time for expanding your waistline,” Dr. Heidi Hanna, executive director of the American Institute for Stress, tells Newsmax Health. “Don’t deprive yourself of the occasional treat but practice eating slowly, calmly and mindfully.”
Financial stress, especially in times of economic woes, can also wreak havoc in families struggling to make ends meet on a daily basis. Lack of money, lack of time and the hype and commercialism of the holiday season play upon the emotions and may cause family discord instead of harmony.
These startling statistics tell the story. When people were asked what feelings they experienced most during the holiday season, they reported:
· Fatigue — 68 percent
· Stress — 61 percent
· Irritability — 52 percent
· Sadness — 36 percent
· Anger — 35 percent
· Loneliness — 26 percent
In fact, the APA reports that nearly three-quarters of the people surveyed say that they experience stress levels that exceed what they define as healthy.
Here are some more interesting statistics
· Americans spend about $525 billion over the holiday season with online spending increasing 12 percent annually.
· The average person spends just under $1,200 over the holidays including food, gifts and travel.
· At least 23 percent of holiday expenses are charged to a credit card with over 6 million people borrowing to pay for Christmas each year.
· One third of bankruptcies filed in March is caused by overspending at Christmas.
To keep your financial house in order, keep an open dialogue with family and friends about gift giving. Many families draw names from a hat and chose one person to gift which dramatically cuts down holiday costs.
In addition to financial stresses, the holidays can boost family tensions. Not every family is blessed with Brady Bunch dynamics. Getting together during the holiday season can cause massive stress.
“Food is a huge issue,” says Kuriansky. “When families sit at the table together, all of a sudden they’re all kids again fighting over who gets the drumstick, who is being a glutton or who is not eating enough. We all become little children again with petty fighting and grievances.”
Acknowledging these dynamics is the first step to reversing negative consequences.
“For example, if your super critical sibling once again mentions how dry the turkey is, be prepared to ignore her.” advises Kuriansky. “This year, shine the light of your attention on something positive and simply flip the switch when she begins her usually criticisms. Things only bother us if we give them our attention. So make that shift from annoyance to gratitude.”
Here are more quick tips from the American Psychological Association:
Take time for yourself. There may be pressure to be everything to everyone but remember that you are only one person and can only accomplish certain things. Take a long walk, get a massage, or simply put your feet up and listen to fine music.
Don’t neglect your physical health. If you have a regular exercise routine, don’t give it up. Exercise releases natural feel-good hormones that can combat stress.
Set realistic expectations. No Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanza or any other holiday celebration is perfect. Look at the inevitable mistakes or mishaps as opportunities to demonstrate resilience and flexibility. Learn to let go of perfectionist idealism because it does not exist.
Volunteer. What better way to appreciate what you’ve got than to help others who have less? You can “adopt” a less fortunate family and make their holiday shine. You can wrap gifts for foster children, serve at a soup kitchen, volunteer at homeless shelter, or participate in a giving tree celebration that benefits communities at large.
Remember what’s important. The barrage of holiday advertising can make us forget what the holiday season is really about. When your expense list is running longer than your monthly budget, scale back and remind yourself that what makes a great celebration is family, not store-bought presents, elaborate decorations, or gourmet food.
Seek support. Talk about your feelings of anxiety with friends and family. Getting things out in the open can help you navigate through the holiday season with less resentment and anger. In addition, being honest with your loved ones can help find a solution for your stress. If you continue to feel overwhelmed, consider seeking a professional to help you manage your holiday stress.
https://www.newsmax.com/health/health-news/holiday-stress-buster/2017/12/07/id/830539/
The winter holidays can bring feelings of
happiness, love, and genuine joy. But for millions of Americans they also bring
unhealthy stress levels that can negatively impact your body and mind.
Dr. Judy Kuriansky, a noted New York-based
psychologist, tells Newsmax Health it’s important to come up with strategies
for managing holiday stress, beginning with keeping perspective and balance
between now and New Year’s Day.“The key to making this season happy — and maybe for the first time in your adult life — is to examine the triggers that cause your stress and diffuse them before they explode,” Kuriansky says.
“And that means being honest with yourself and your limitations. We all know the serenity prayer that reminds us to know the difference between what we can control and what we can’t. The source of discontentment during this busy season is not being realistic — not truly seeing our situation for what is, and expecting people and things to change.”
According to a report compiled by the American Psychological Association, holiday stress has the greatest impact on women who customarily take charge of many of the holiday celebrations — particularly the tasks of preparing the meals and decorating the home.
Women are also most likely to be the ones shopping for and wrapping gifts. They have a harder time relaxing during the holidays and are more likely to fall into bad habits to manage their stress, like comfort eating.
"Studies show that our appetite for sweets increases quite dramatically when we experience chronic stress which makes the holiday season prime time for expanding your waistline,” Dr. Heidi Hanna, executive director of the American Institute for Stress, tells Newsmax Health. “Don’t deprive yourself of the occasional treat but practice eating slowly, calmly and mindfully.”
Financial stress, especially in times of economic woes, can also wreak havoc in families struggling to make ends meet on a daily basis. Lack of money, lack of time and the hype and commercialism of the holiday season play upon the emotions and may cause family discord instead of harmony.
These startling statistics tell the story. When people were asked what feelings they experienced most during the holiday season, they reported:
· Fatigue — 68 percent
· Stress — 61 percent
· Irritability — 52 percent
· Sadness — 36 percent
· Anger — 35 percent
· Loneliness — 26 percent
In fact, the APA reports that nearly three-quarters of the people surveyed say that they experience stress levels that exceed what they define as healthy.
Here are some more interesting statistics
· Americans spend about $525 billion over the holiday season with online spending increasing 12 percent annually.
· The average person spends just under $1,200 over the holidays including food, gifts and travel.
· At least 23 percent of holiday expenses are charged to a credit card with over 6 million people borrowing to pay for Christmas each year.
· One third of bankruptcies filed in March is caused by overspending at Christmas.
To keep your financial house in order, keep an open dialogue with family and friends about gift giving. Many families draw names from a hat and chose one person to gift which dramatically cuts down holiday costs.
In addition to financial stresses, the holidays can boost family tensions. Not every family is blessed with Brady Bunch dynamics. Getting together during the holiday season can cause massive stress.
“Food is a huge issue,” says Kuriansky. “When families sit at the table together, all of a sudden they’re all kids again fighting over who gets the drumstick, who is being a glutton or who is not eating enough. We all become little children again with petty fighting and grievances.”
Acknowledging these dynamics is the first step to reversing negative consequences.
“For example, if your super critical sibling once again mentions how dry the turkey is, be prepared to ignore her.” advises Kuriansky. “This year, shine the light of your attention on something positive and simply flip the switch when she begins her usually criticisms. Things only bother us if we give them our attention. So make that shift from annoyance to gratitude.”
Here are more quick tips from the American Psychological Association:
Take time for yourself. There may be pressure to be everything to everyone but remember that you are only one person and can only accomplish certain things. Take a long walk, get a massage, or simply put your feet up and listen to fine music.
Don’t neglect your physical health. If you have a regular exercise routine, don’t give it up. Exercise releases natural feel-good hormones that can combat stress.
Set realistic expectations. No Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanza or any other holiday celebration is perfect. Look at the inevitable mistakes or mishaps as opportunities to demonstrate resilience and flexibility. Learn to let go of perfectionist idealism because it does not exist.
Volunteer. What better way to appreciate what you’ve got than to help others who have less? You can “adopt” a less fortunate family and make their holiday shine. You can wrap gifts for foster children, serve at a soup kitchen, volunteer at homeless shelter, or participate in a giving tree celebration that benefits communities at large.
Remember what’s important. The barrage of holiday advertising can make us forget what the holiday season is really about. When your expense list is running longer than your monthly budget, scale back and remind yourself that what makes a great celebration is family, not store-bought presents, elaborate decorations, or gourmet food.
Seek support. Talk about your feelings of anxiety with friends and family. Getting things out in the open can help you navigate through the holiday season with less resentment and anger. In addition, being honest with your loved ones can help find a solution for your stress. If you continue to feel overwhelmed, consider seeking a professional to help you manage your holiday stress.
Tuesday, February 10, 2015
The Best Birthday Gift Ever
February 10, 2015
Harry Pickens
I turned 55 a couple of weeks ago. My personal
assistant, Ellie, who is a former college student of mine, kept asking
me what I wanted for my birthday. I really didn't know. At a certain
point in life, your hunger for material things really begins to
dissipate, and I really didn't want anything in particular except to
enjoy a day of quiet celebration, joyful connection, and peace of mind.
About a week before my birthday, an idea came to me during my meditation. I had asked God to reveal to me what kind of gift I could ask for that would be of greatest service to me and to others (for the highest good of all concerned).
When the idea came, I knew it was exactly what I needed to request, and it would allow my birthday to be celebrated and commemorated in an unusual fashion, one that would definitely inspire positive action, and maybe even have an impact that would last more than a day.
There is a Native American tradition called the giveaway, in which the birthday celebrant actually gives the gifts to his or her guests. This is a recognition of the joy of giving, and an expression of one’s gratitude for living for yet another year.
My idea took this concept a bit further. When I next met with Ellie, I said to her, ‘I know exactly what I want for my birthday this year. I want you to mobilize your friends to create 55 acts of kindness on my behalf: one for each year of my life thus far. The one rule for the acts is that the recipient must not know who the person is who is gifting them, so that they experience a kind act bestowed by a benevolent stranger.’
I also told her that I wanted her to keep a record of what was done so that I could savor it all sometime the week after my actual birthday (there was not quite enough time available for her to get it all done by January 27th).
Ellie, who is a marvelous organizer and motivator, cheerfully accepted the challenge and was on her way.
A few days ago, Ellie and I sat down to share what happened as a result of my birthday challenge. She sat across from me and began to read a 5 page letter describing each of the 55 acts. (By the time this Sunday’s gathering occurs, I will have heard about all 55, because we didn’t’t have enough time that day and were scheduled to meet again on Saturday.)
During this conversation she got through the first 20 - more than enough to crack my heart open and let me know that I needed to have the kleenex ready at hand when she read the rest of the letter to me.
So what is the point of all this, the moral of the story? As I sat in my office listening to Ellie read the first part of this letter, I was struck by the power of a single idea to create a tangible positive difference in the lives of others.
I could see and hear and feel in my imagination the person who was waiting in line at the fast food restaurant who discovered that their meal had been paid for by a stranger.
I could feel the gratitude in the heart of the person who walked back to their car at the Douglass loop to discover that the parking meter had been paid.
I could almost reach out and feel the excitement of the doctor’s assistant who found an envelope on her desk containing an anonymous gift to cover the next patient’s copay.
As Ellie read each one of these acts out loud to me, I had this visceral feeling of an invisible yet tangible connection with every single person who was touched by this simple idea.
It was as though I finally understood, on a whole new level, the power of an idea , an idea that began as a simple question - a request to my Inner Source to help me figure out what the best possible gift might be — a gift that would touch the lives of more than me - that might change the world in some small way.
This invisible, intangible thought — translated into action — touched the lives of at least 100 people in less than a week. I started expanding my thinking — how could I expand this idea so that more and more people might catch the astonishing power of simply doing something kind for another human being?
As I sat there listening to Ellie read, a new idea came into my awareness. What if I could inspire others to celebrate their birthdays in this way? Perhaps I could start a new tradition, one that would multiply kindness and compassion and joy and love in exponential ways.
Then I thought, how else might I inspire acts of kindness? I went to the randomactsofkindness.com website, which is the ultimate repository for ideas and resources for spreading kindness, and I discovered RAKWEEK 2015 — a week long initiative with the goal of inspiring 100,000 acts of kindness between February 9-15 2015. Just in time for this reflection and our gathering.
So, my invitation to you is this: what might you do to catalyze kindness and compassion within your circle of influence? How might you express the love and mercy of God by serving and loving others in this way? How do acts of kindness express the living, loving presence of God in, as and through us? What if you decided that you were going to inspire one act of kindness for every year of your life thus far? Where would you start?
And perhaps the most important point of all is this: everything that I’ve shared with you in this brief reflection began with a single question: ‘What do you want for your birthday?’, which I translated into a direct request to God.
I asked ’what gift would be of greatest service?’
And this simple question changed everything.
Harry Pickens is a spiritually inspired American jazz pianist and a blessing to the Presbyterian Church U.S.A.. This was reprinted with his permission. http://www.pcusa.org/news/2015/2/10/best-birthday-gift-ever/
About a week before my birthday, an idea came to me during my meditation. I had asked God to reveal to me what kind of gift I could ask for that would be of greatest service to me and to others (for the highest good of all concerned).
When the idea came, I knew it was exactly what I needed to request, and it would allow my birthday to be celebrated and commemorated in an unusual fashion, one that would definitely inspire positive action, and maybe even have an impact that would last more than a day.
There is a Native American tradition called the giveaway, in which the birthday celebrant actually gives the gifts to his or her guests. This is a recognition of the joy of giving, and an expression of one’s gratitude for living for yet another year.
My idea took this concept a bit further. When I next met with Ellie, I said to her, ‘I know exactly what I want for my birthday this year. I want you to mobilize your friends to create 55 acts of kindness on my behalf: one for each year of my life thus far. The one rule for the acts is that the recipient must not know who the person is who is gifting them, so that they experience a kind act bestowed by a benevolent stranger.’
I also told her that I wanted her to keep a record of what was done so that I could savor it all sometime the week after my actual birthday (there was not quite enough time available for her to get it all done by January 27th).
Ellie, who is a marvelous organizer and motivator, cheerfully accepted the challenge and was on her way.
A few days ago, Ellie and I sat down to share what happened as a result of my birthday challenge. She sat across from me and began to read a 5 page letter describing each of the 55 acts. (By the time this Sunday’s gathering occurs, I will have heard about all 55, because we didn’t’t have enough time that day and were scheduled to meet again on Saturday.)
During this conversation she got through the first 20 - more than enough to crack my heart open and let me know that I needed to have the kleenex ready at hand when she read the rest of the letter to me.
So what is the point of all this, the moral of the story? As I sat in my office listening to Ellie read the first part of this letter, I was struck by the power of a single idea to create a tangible positive difference in the lives of others.
I could see and hear and feel in my imagination the person who was waiting in line at the fast food restaurant who discovered that their meal had been paid for by a stranger.
I could feel the gratitude in the heart of the person who walked back to their car at the Douglass loop to discover that the parking meter had been paid.
I could almost reach out and feel the excitement of the doctor’s assistant who found an envelope on her desk containing an anonymous gift to cover the next patient’s copay.
As Ellie read each one of these acts out loud to me, I had this visceral feeling of an invisible yet tangible connection with every single person who was touched by this simple idea.
It was as though I finally understood, on a whole new level, the power of an idea , an idea that began as a simple question - a request to my Inner Source to help me figure out what the best possible gift might be — a gift that would touch the lives of more than me - that might change the world in some small way.
This invisible, intangible thought — translated into action — touched the lives of at least 100 people in less than a week. I started expanding my thinking — how could I expand this idea so that more and more people might catch the astonishing power of simply doing something kind for another human being?
As I sat there listening to Ellie read, a new idea came into my awareness. What if I could inspire others to celebrate their birthdays in this way? Perhaps I could start a new tradition, one that would multiply kindness and compassion and joy and love in exponential ways.
Then I thought, how else might I inspire acts of kindness? I went to the randomactsofkindness.com website, which is the ultimate repository for ideas and resources for spreading kindness, and I discovered RAKWEEK 2015 — a week long initiative with the goal of inspiring 100,000 acts of kindness between February 9-15 2015. Just in time for this reflection and our gathering.
So, my invitation to you is this: what might you do to catalyze kindness and compassion within your circle of influence? How might you express the love and mercy of God by serving and loving others in this way? How do acts of kindness express the living, loving presence of God in, as and through us? What if you decided that you were going to inspire one act of kindness for every year of your life thus far? Where would you start?
And perhaps the most important point of all is this: everything that I’ve shared with you in this brief reflection began with a single question: ‘What do you want for your birthday?’, which I translated into a direct request to God.
I asked ’what gift would be of greatest service?’
And this simple question changed everything.
Harry Pickens is a spiritually inspired American jazz pianist and a blessing to the Presbyterian Church U.S.A.. This was reprinted with his permission. http://www.pcusa.org/news/2015/2/10/best-birthday-gift-ever/
Sunday, June 30, 2013
A Prayer by St. Francis of Assisi
You are holy, Lord, the only God, and your deeds are wonderful.
You are strong, you are great, you are the most high, you are almighty.
You, Holy Father, are King of Heaven and Earth.
You are Three and One, all good.
You are good, all supreme good, Lord God, living and true.
You are love, you are wisdom. You are humility, you are endurance.
You are rest, you are peace.
You are joy and gladness, you are justice and moderation.
You are all our riches, and you suffice for us.
You are beauty, you are gentleness.
You are our protector, you are our guardian and our defender.
You are courage, you are our haven and hope.
You are our faith, our great consolation.
You are eternal life, great and wonderful Lord,
God almighty, merciful Savior.
by St. Francis of Assisi
-from Jesus, Be the Center, by Rev. Eunice McGarrahan
This is a great descriptions of God.
You are strong, you are great, you are the most high, you are almighty.
You, Holy Father, are King of Heaven and Earth.
You are Three and One, all good.
You are good, all supreme good, Lord God, living and true.
You are love, you are wisdom. You are humility, you are endurance.
You are rest, you are peace.
You are joy and gladness, you are justice and moderation.
You are all our riches, and you suffice for us.
You are beauty, you are gentleness.
You are our protector, you are our guardian and our defender.
You are courage, you are our haven and hope.
You are our faith, our great consolation.
You are eternal life, great and wonderful Lord,
God almighty, merciful Savior.
by St. Francis of Assisi
-from Jesus, Be the Center, by Rev. Eunice McGarrahan
This is a great descriptions of God.
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Get Happy with the Joyful Jesus
I have a picture of Jesus with a big grin, clutching a
fishing net with a sailboat in the background. (It’s called “Risen Christ by
the Sea” by artist Jack Jewell. You can get one from http://www.joyfulnoiseletter.com/risen_Christ.asp.) This grinning Jesus is full of Easter joy and healing
love, and represents “The Easter Laugh”
– God’s last laugh on the devil when He raised Jesus from the dead. Jesus was fun to hang out
with.
True happiness comes from God. When we trust the Savior and let the Holy Spirit manage our lives, JOY is one fruit of the Spirit. That’s been a tough one for me, after growing up in a home where work always came before fun, and some days, we never got to the fun part. That old saying about All work and no play was never said in our family, but we experienced it firsthand.
However, my adult experiences have shown me that REAL
HAPPINESS COMES FROM KNOWING JESUS. Psalm 2:4 says, The One
enthroned in heaven laughs. Jesus promised in Luke 6:21, Blessed are you who weep now,
for
you will laugh. (So there’s hope for folks like me.) The Joyful One also said, I
have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be
complete.
(John 15:11) In John
16:33, He says, be
of good cheer: I have overcome the world.
From my experiences with people, we all want to find real happiness. We do many things and spend much to find happiness, some positive and somethings simply to escape this hard life, but the only way to find true, lasting happiness, is THROUGH THE JOYFUL JESUS. Without Jesus’ presence in our lives, we just exist, often without purpose or meaning. Go to the joyful Jesus through prayer and Scripture, and when you let His Spirit guide your life, JOY will come, and probably when you least expect it.
Monday, May 20, 2013
Want to Get HAPPY?
There isn’t much Christian teaching on being happy. Are we Christians too busy to
realize that our Lord’s presence is a “fullness of joy,” and that his right
hand holds “pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11)? Do we even believe that God WANTS us to be happy?
Wise theologians through the centuries have taught that HAPPINESS COMES FROM KNOWING GOD. So many things in our society distract us from a relationship with the Master, but do we realize that being truly happy requires a personal relationship with God? So if you long to be happy, seek God.
The old saying that “money can’t buy happiness” is
incomplete. Studies show that a
basic level of happiness depends on our basic needs of food, shelter, and clothing
are required to be happy. It’s
impossible to be happy if you haven’t eaten today or slept in a bed this week.
But once one gets a little above the poverty level, there’s
an opposite financial danger -buying the myth of materialism, believing that THINGS
can make us happier. Studies
show there’s no correlation between happiness and income level. Think of all the well-to-do folks you
know, who aren’t any happier than Joe Lunch-bucket. That new gadget or toy you’re longing for - its happiness
won’t last much longer than the next thunderstorm. Sometimes, our gadgets or toys even give us headaches or
cause us grief.
One more thing about money and happiness: If you want to get happy, give
something away. Jesus said, “It’s
more blessed to GIVE than to receive.”
In 2006, I went through a tough depression. We decided to give our tithe to a family who was in
financial trouble. I wrote a short
card with each check I sent, which gave me a wonderful feeling, knowing that we
were helping friends. Maybe you
have something that an acquaintance could use; if you share it, you’ll be BLESSED, according to the One who gave his life as a ransom for many. Blessed means HAPPY!
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Rejoice in the Lord Always!
In Philippians 4:4, Paul wrote, “Rejoice in the Lord
always. Again, I say,
rejoice!” The amazing thing is
that Paul wrote that from a prison.
How could Paul rejoice while he was restrained in chains and awaiting
his trial? What did he know that
we need to know?
About 10 years before Paul wrote that letter to the
Philippians, he was in Philippi to share the gospel. Paul and Silas were beaten and put in jail for casting an
evil spirit out of a slave girl.
Late that night, while in a dark prison cell, Paul and Silas began to
pray and sing to the Lord. See
Acts 16: 16-34. It must have
seemed strange to hear the song of the Lord in a place of suffering, shame, and
abuse. How odd to hear JOY coming
from a place of SORROW.
Paul and Silas could have cried, but they chose to
rejoice. They knew that Jesus
Christ has overcome the world.
They knew that He who is in you is greater than he who is in the
world. They had a deep conviction
that God is always in control, and God will have the last say.
Have you ever felt like you were in a prison? Ever felt stuck between a rock and a
hard place? Maybe it was a prison
of sickness, accusation, financial ruin, heartache, or depression. What are you going to do when you’re in
that hard place? When you’re up a
creek with a paddle, how are you going to handle it?
Paul shows us how to rejoice in dark place. God is bigger than whatever you’re
facing now. Your circumstances may
look bad, but God is still on the throne.
No matter what happened to Paul, he kept on praising. He kept on rejoicing in the Lord. When we are weak, we have to depend on
God and his strength. When we come
to the end of ourselves, we see that we can’t accomplish anything apart from
God.
If you are tired and weary, sick and tired of being sick and
tired, trust the One who has overcome the world. If you need help or encouragement, if you don’t know how
long you can keep hanging on, seek the strength and joy that comes from the
Way, the Truth, and the Life.
Praise and rejoicing can help you see beyond your emotions,
your circumstances, your enemies.
Your praise will establish a base for God’s wonder-working power. If you rejoice in the Lord and his
faithfulness and goodness, the Master will work it out. God is always in control, and God
will have the last say.
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