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Greet Each Day by Rose Murdock One morning as I was listening to the birds singing outside I suddenly understood that the birds sing each morning to thank God for another day. They were expressing their appreciation for the sunrise. I realized that people would learn something special by following their example. Are you so thankful for another day, another sunrise that you greet each day with a song of thanksgiving and praise to God? I had to ask myself, am I that thankful for another day? Am I that thankful for life? How much value do I place on each day? Valuable enough to be excited about getting one more day to live? I believe that was God’s intention when He created us. For us to be able to greet each day with joy, peace and love. How many of us can really do that? How many of us love life enough that just waking up and seeing we have another day to live causes us to burst into song? I think that the first step to come to a place of joy like that in your life is to come to a place of peace. When you are in a place of acceptance then you will not be striving and anxious about changing or "bettering" your life. If you have developed a habit of not allowing yourself to feel at peace until you achieve a certain something in your life then you will never be able to enjoy each day of your life. There will always be something you are working for, striving for, and trying to get. You will always view yourself as lacking and that lack mentality will push you to try and get what you don’t yet have and keep you in a place of unrest every day. On the other hand, if you will begin to allow yourself to be at peace and at rest each day, accept where you are in life and make the decision to live within your means and within your current boundaries and limitations, then you will experience a great peace and will be able to live each day, not only with peace but with joy. This means that you lay aside your impatience and impulsiveness and your credit cards. It means you live within your budget and do not rebel against the restrictions it places on you. You learn to appreciate everything that you have instead of resenting everything that you don’t have. A place to sleep, food to eat, and clothes to wear. Every "little" thing becomes a source of appreciation for you. You can even begin to appreciate the people in your life as you quit trying to change and manipulate them. This goes against the very grain of most of the American and western way of thinking. The thought of accepting things the way they are may be a dreadful thought to you. But by this I don’t mean that we should become lazy people who don’t work hard towards a dream or a goal. On the contrary, I believe a true attitude of peace and joy will cause you to become much more diligent and excellent in your work because you will not be in such a rush to get through. You will truly enjoy your work. Your mind will be in the moment and not off in the future. And as you do a good and thorough job, that will pay off through increased blessing as described in the book of Proverbs. Your life will get "better" but not because you are working for it to get better from a mindset of discontentment. It won’t get better because you are struggling and striving for things to improve because you can’t stand the way your life is right now. It will get better because you enjoy your life so much now that whatever you do becomes excellent. Your life will draw and attract blessing because the beauty of your life will be reflected in your work and all that you do.
"What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Isn’t it the whole army of evil desires at war within you? You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous for what others have, and you can’t possess it, so you fight and quarrel to take it away from them. And yet the reason you don’t have what you want is that you don’t ask God for it. And even when you do ask, you don’t get it because your whole motive is wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure." 1 This describes a lack mentality. It describes someone who is not at peace with their life and is striving to get what they don’t have. And if they do turn to God, they haven’t had a change of heart, they’re simply trying to use God to feed the evil within. This won’t work because God doesn’t want to feed your lust and lack mentality. He wants you to get rid of it! He wants you to learn to live at peace and in His joy, not to keep feeding your mindset of lack. True peace means you are not anxious for change. You are not in a hurry. You are not constantly thinking, "if and when". You may pray for wisdom to find out how to change certain circumstances in your life. But look to see if you are not allowing yourself to be at peace until your circumstances change. If that’s true, then even your prayer for wisdom is coming from a heart of discontentment rather then a heart of peace. You will better see the wisdom of God when your heart is full of peace and contentment. James also said that the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable.2 God’s wisdom springs from a heart of peace. When you’re anxious to change something it’s harder to see the wisdom of God. But when you are at peace, wisdom flourishes. You might think you need God’s wisdom so you know what to do to change your circumstances for the better. That may be true. But if you are so unhappy with your current circumstances then your perception of God’s wisdom will be distorted. If you can come to a place of peace and acceptance and get rid of the anxiousness surrounding your circumstance then God’s wisdom will spring from that peace within you. This is why the apostle Paul wrote not to be anxious about anything but in every circumstance to let your requests be made known to God with thanksgiving.3 When you do that, the peace of God will keep you. Paul wrote this while he was in prison! He learned that peace did not come from his circumstances around him. He learned not to pray from a heart of anxiousness and desperation. This kind of peace is not out of reach for you. It begins when you come to a place of peace with God, which was made available to you through Jesus Christ. From that union you have the ability to lay aside your anxiousness and impatience every day. Each day can be a day to sing for, a day that you love, so that you thank God simply for the opportunity to be alive today. This kind of appreciation to God comes only after we recognize the beauty and value of each day as a reflection of His love for us. The Bible tells us that we love Him because He first loved us.4 Once we can see that He loves us we will love Him and thank Him in return. The depth of His love for us is expressed in what Jesus did for us. My suggestion to you is to get up
each morning and begin to think about God’s love for you. Think about
the love of Jesus and remember that He’s all you need. Look at all the
ways God has blessed you and don’t look at what you think you’re
lacking. Do that until you come to a place where an appreciation begins
to arise inside you. That appreciation is the song of praise that will
bring joy to your heart. And that joy is the strength that you need to
carry you through whatever you will face each day.5 |
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