Don't Worry, In God Be Happy...

This week, I was watching my weekly TED talks, I watched a talk called The Surprise Science of Happiness, as I watched this I thought about all the different things that make people happy. In the Talk Dan Gilbert, a psychologist from Harvard who has researched this topic for a while, said that we had a chance to “control” happiness, as our brain evolved and we received the frontal lobe we gained the capacity to simulate ideas and concepts based on previous background. He said however that these simulations are not always correct. He said that due to something called “impact bias” we tend to overestimate the impact or duration of future events.

 He gave the example, he offered two people a lottery winner and a paraplegic and asked who we thought was happier. He then surprised us by saying that both categories were equally satisfied with their lives. He said that those who look to their loss as a new chance of happiness have synthesised their happiness. He concluded that the human’s capacity to adapt generates happiness because it helps one be content with what he/she has.

This made me think about my own happiness. I know naturally I am not really a happy person, I tend to look at the negative aspects of the environment around me. I am a dreamer, but when it comes to real life around me I see the many aspects from the happy things to the tristesse. However I only ever focus on the negative things.  I thought about when things don't go to plan how I react to them. I realised how much I look at the loss or the damage instead of seeing the chance to have happiness.

The Bible talks about joy and happiness a lot, it tells us that this joy and happiness is a gift from God: Solomon said,

“I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God's gift to man.” Ecclesiastes 3:12-13

Solomon was a wise man, he was given wisdom from the Lord, he said that everything was meaningless yet he discovered that there was nothing better for us than to be joyful and to do good as long as we live, as it is a gift from God. He also said, “In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him.” So we have been given joy or the feeling of happiness as a gift from God. In this gift we have been given the choice to be joyful, this is why the scripture tells us to rejoice. The bible tells us that when we look to scripture and to God we will find this joy.

So why is it that I find it difficult to always be happy, I guess, it is because I am a very forgetful person and I keep forgetting that, as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 it is by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain… though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. God is working in me and I need to remember that but on top of that I need to remember to be grateful for what God has done and continues to do.

 Funnily enough this is what psychologists will help make me a happier person; being grateful. Paul knew this all too well as did the psalmist as they many times over remind us to give thanks. Let me end on this note, on this verse from 2 Corinthians 9:15.

I don’t know if any of this made sense as I was kind of spilling my thoughts onto a page.

Let is consider this and remember this:

THANKS BE TO GOD FOR HIS INEXPRESSIBLE GIFT!

AMEN!

I Need Thee, Lord I Need Thee!

In recent weeks I have been learning to trust in the Lord for the where, how and what for of my life, I have been praying for weeks as to some insight into what reasons the Lord has timed and arranged certain things. I started doing a great deal of study into what it means to be under the banner of Christ. What it means to carry my cross and follow him, and how that looks on a daily basis. It was while doing this study that I pulled out my great aunts journal from the early 1920’s. This great aunt of mine was a very godly woman who was always in the word. It was then that I fell upon the page of her notes from Spurgeons last sermon in the Tabernacle in London, although I had read these words before, I read them again with a sense of eye opening awe, of who Christ is and of the magnitude of how awesome it is that I get to, no, have the privileged to, wear the livery of Christ. I know that anyone who reads these words will see it too.

“If you wear the livery of Christ, you will find him so meek and lowly of heart that you will find rest unto your souls. He is the most magnanimous of captains. There never was his like the choicest of princes. He is always to be found in the thickest part of the battle. When the wind blows cold he always takes the bleak side of the hill. The heaviest end of the cross lies ever on his shoulders. If he bids us carry a burden, he carries it also. If there is anything that is gracious, generous, kind, and tender, yea lavish and superabundant in love, you always find it in him. His service is life, peace, and joy. Oh, that you would enter on it at once! God help you to enlist under the banner of JESUS CHRIST!” Spurgeon

It was from these words that I started out of nowhere singing an old hymn written by Mrs Annie Hawks in 1872. She too had been filled with the sense of nearness to the Master. She said that while thinking this she wondered how one could live without Him, either in joy or pain. These words, “I Need Thee Every Hour,” were ushered into her mind, and she wrote that “the thought at once took full possession of her” it was not until her husband died that she really appreciated the words the Lord permitted her to write. The lines yet simple are so true and so powerfully beautiful. Here they are:

I need Thee every hour, most gracious Lord;

No tender voice like Thine can peace afford.

I need Thee every hour, stay Thou nearby;

Temptations lose their power when Thou art nigh.

I need Thee every hour, in joy or pain;

Come quickly and abide, or life is in vain.

I need Thee every hour; teach me Thy will;

And Thy rich promises in me fulfil.

I need Thee every hour, most Holy One;

O make me Thine indeed, Thou blessèd Son.

All of these words are so beautiful, but the refrain is so beautiful and it is my prayer;

I need Thee, O I need Thee;

Every hour I need Thee;

O bless me now, my Saviour,

I come to Thee.

As I closed the journal, a piece of paper fell out on it were the words of a simple poem about prayer. Here is the poem, it is by anon, but I really like it and it links in nicely with the topic above. It is about the nearness that bot I and Mrs Hawk felt.

Prayer is so simple,

It is like quietly opening a door

And slipping into the very presence of God.

There in the stillness

To listen for is voice

Perhaps to petition,

Or only to listen;

It matters not;

Just to be there

In his presence

Is prayer!  - anon

walking in faith

“Living a life of faith means never knowing where you are being led.” – Oswald Chambers

There is a Scandinavian saying, “Faith is like a bird that feels dawn breaking and sings while it is still dark.” This saying talks about how the bird knows that dawn is breaking through and the darkness is coming to end. This morning I was finding it difficult to sleep I lay in my bed and watched as civil twilight welcomed in the dawn. As the dawn was approaching I could hear the small birds singing their chorus to welcome the dawn. The birds knew that the dawn was breaking through the darkness and the cold density of night.

However, as much as the saying talks about the birds feeling the dawn, I believe that the birds have it in built in them. The natural chronology of the day is for the sun to rise and set and has not changed over millennia. Their belief in the certainty of this chronology is what allows them to sing their chorus. Sometimes we look at the dark and trying times in our lives and we see only the darkness. We are engulfed by the now deepening darkness of the situations we are in. There are so many times we have been in these trying times, and the Lord has brought us through them to show us the light again. Yet we only see the darkness. Scripture has many an example of the Lord bringing people out of their dark and trying times and yet we still seem to fail at having faith in the light that is coming. 

In 2 Corinthians 4: 16-18 we see that the darkness and the affliction is only momentary it is outweighed by the eternal weight of glory. This weighty eternal glory is unseen as it is the reward we receive from God, we are to strive for and be convicted by that which is unseen as Hebrews 11 tells us. Oswald Chambers says it is like not knowing where you are being led, when we walk in the dark we walk with our arms in front of us and fear is in our hearts as we try to walk.

This reminds me of when I was younger, I was sitting in the living room watching a movie when the power went out, I remember the fear that I felt, it was not until I heard my mother’s voice that I knew it was safe. Although I knew that my mother was in the other room, I was still afraid. It was not until I heard her voice and was reminded of how close she was that I realised it was OK. The same can be said for us when we are going through trials, through those dark times, we often forget that the Lord is with us. It is not until we hear from the Lord or are reminded of what the Lord has done for us that we feel fine.

Psalm 139 reminds us that even in the pits of the darkest parts of the earth God is there, even in the darkest recesses of our mind He is there, there is nowhere that God is not. This is a reassuring thing for us when we think that we are alone in the dark and trying times. Next time we feel like we are going through a hard time remember that God is with us through it all and he will direct us through the darkness, where we will receive the weighty eternal glory. Praise be to God for his ever present help.

humilité dans la simplicité

Michel Roux Sr Simply enjoying food

The meek man is not a human mouse afflicted with a sense of his own inferiority. He has accepted God's estimate of his own life: In himself, nothing; In God, everything. He knows well that the world will never see him as God sees him and he has stopped caring.-- A.W. Tozer

I am as some who are reading this know, have a dangerous passion for food and cooking. And one of my food hero’s is Michel Roux Sr. for those who do not know who Michel Roux Sr. is, here is the sort and sweet about him: he is one of the “Godfathers of modern restaurant cuisine” in the UK. He and his brother are two of the greatest Chefs in the UK. His Scholarship is one of the most prestigious awards to receive outside of the Michelin Stars. Anyway, I was watching his new challenge where chefs are competing to get this scholarship, and he teaches them little tips along the way. Every week they are given a different challenge, and each time the guys who get through are those who simply cook understanding the food before him/her.

One of the things that he is always telling the chefs is that once you realise that there is a natural order for how the food compliments each other and humbly let them do as they are meant to, once you simply let the food do as it is meant to then you will produce the best food the “piece de résistance”. And surprisingly yet not so surprisingly the meals that won were always made when the food complemented each part and no forceful change was made to the taste, or consistency.

While I was watching this, the Holy Spirit whispered in my ear, “this is just like the covenant that God made with you….” I nodded in the yeah I already know way, and then he said it again “the covenant with God is simple, all you gotta do is humbly let God work in you to do as the covenant said it would. Let God change you out of love.”

So easily I had been trying to make it harder than it is. I had been trying to work out what I had to do and what I was receiving instead of letting God do the work out of love. I recently watched a sermon by Paul Tripp, who said that the grace that God has given us is a free and beautiful gift, yet we do not know how to accept it or what to do with it. He gave the example of his grandson receiving a gift and playing with the box. We so often do this, we receive the gift of grace and we don’t know what to do with it.

The simplicity of the message of the gospel and the simplicity of the connection that God wants with us, may to us, in our sin filled world of understanding, seem just too easy to receive. We are always trying to make it really difficult for ourselves when the easy way is being handed to us on a silver platter. Jesus did not say come to me and then do this list of things and then you will receive the gift. He was not the game show host of the krypton factor, no He said,” my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Now I am not saying it is a breeze, but if we as Tozer put it, accept God’s estimate of our life, we will stop caring about the world’s view of us, we will stop worrying about the future, we will happily humbly step down from the driver seat and let God lead the way. We will humbly accept the simplicity that God loves us and we are saved by grace and grace alone, not by works. Then we will not boast in ourselves, but like the chef who lets the food do the talking, we will let God do the talking and working in us and through us.

I pray that I will learn this and will not forget it, which I am so capable of doing. I pray I can humbly let the Potter mould the clay. Lord teach me and mould me. Praise be to God for the Holy Spirit’s whispers.

Eph 4:4-6  There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; ⁵ one Lord, one faith, one baptism; ⁶ one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you^[a] all.

AMEN

Run Patiently and Intelligibly the Race Set Before Us

Today I was doing my devotional in the morning, and I decided to check my emails, in my emails I receive a runners world quote (as cheesy as that sounds) well the quote that I received today was quite interesting as it was something I was praying about and my devotional talked about.

Here is the quote,

” Running should be a lifelong activity. Approach it patiently and intelligently, and it will reward you for a long, long time.”  Michael Sargent

This quote is about having a life of running, something I wish I could have, my patience is not so strong and I have to say although I know a lot about the Science of running and the importance of running, yet getting my butt off of the couch sometimes to run can be as difficult as climbing a very big mountain. Sometimes I can say that my walk/ run with the Lord is the same. I know a lot of stuff and I know the importance of being in the word and coming before the Lord every morning. I have been at Bible College and have studied the word and absorbed it into my heart, yet sometimes acting on this knowledge can be very difficult.

And believe me I know how amazing it is to run the race looking to Jesus, but it can still be difficult when factors around me can be very weighty and sometimes it can become comfortable, like the couch. In 1 Corinthians 9:24 we read, “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it.” I have often prayed that my lackadaisical attitude would not weigh me down, but that I would be ready every morning to run with the prize in mind.

In the Psalms there is often mention of running and being able to run due to the awesomeness of God. Psalm 18 says for by you I can run against the troop, and Psalm 119 says I will run in the way of your commandments when you enlarge my heart. I have experienced God enlarge my heart and that is when I feel I could outrun horses and run against troops… In Proverbs we read that if we keep the instructions and adhere to them, “When you walk, your step will not be hampered, and if you run, you will not stumble. It also says that if we put our trust in the Lord we will run and not grow weary. (Isaiah 40:31 ESV). I should strive to run knowing that God will sustain me through it all. When Michael said we should approach it intelligently, I think about what it says in proverbs, this is the intelligible response adhering to the commandments so that we can run and our reward will be for a long, long time.

Another thing that I thought about was how if we approach running patiently and intelligibly then we know to do the stretches we need to do, and we know the importance of how we run and how we need to hydrate ourselves.  The same is with the word and with our running for God, In 1 Corinthians 9:25-27 Paul talks about this,

“Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.”

 He says that we need to keep training and patiently do it so that we can say we did not run aimlessly. He again reiterates that in Philippians 2:16 “holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labour in vain.” We need to hold fast to the word and run looking to the lord and Saviour at the finish line.

Finally I thought I would leave us with these verses from Hebrews which basically sums up what I am trying to say in a manner of speaking,

 “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”

In this passage we see that there is the great Hall of faith, and we see the importance of laying aside those factors that stop us running and we must patiently endure with our eyes fixed on the goal looking to Jesus. If we do this, and I hope and pray we do, we will have the reward for a long, long, long, long time.

Blessings

Richard

Foundation in Christ

“There is only one secure foundation: a genuine, deep relationship with Jesus Christ, which will carry you through any and all turmoil. No matter what storms are raging all around, you'll stand firm if you stand on His love.”

Charles Stanley

I have been going through some trials recently and have found that at times in my fleshly self-will I stray a little, sometimes a lot, from the foundation I have in Christ. In these trials so often I find that the Lord is chiselling away at the parts of me which are hindering my walk and worship of the Master Designer/creator. At these times when I should come back to the scripture and hold fast to the word of God and the manifestation of the word in Christ, I find myself listening to my own thoughts or listening to the distracting voice of the enemy who uses my weaknesses to blow me a little until I find myself not standing strong on the foundation of my relationship with Christ.

Often I wondered why was it that I so easily stumbled off of this rock, why was it that I so easily listened to the stupid lies of the enemy, it was then that the comforter reminded me of the passage in the gospel of Luke where Jesus is talking about the tree and it’s fruit and how out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. How when our heart is full of these lies and the uncertainties that the enemy puts in our way to stumble us we find that our mouth speaks these thoughts and anxieties and sometimes we hurt others because of this.

Now we may think to ourselves well, I have been memorising passages in the bible and have been learning different things in the word through classes or bible studies and these things are on our hearts, so why do we still find our mouths saying these things and our minds thinking these things. Well Jesus covers this too. He asks “why do you call me Lord, Lord and not do what I tell you?”  In this he is really asking if you know that I am Lord then why do you find it difficult to do that which I instruct you to do. So often in our times of bible study we read and study and learn yet it stops there. There is no part where it reprograms our hearts, where our heart and mind connect and our heart gets that update that we need. He compares it to the man who builds a house upon a rock. He says that those who hear the word and do as it says, are like the man who “dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock.”

I find that so often I have begun digging the foundation and have started to lay the foundation but have become lazy or distracted and so the building is not so strong or sturdy and when the trials come I let the winds blow and the water hit and the house begins to fall. I thought that I had placed the word deep in my heart, but instead I had heard the word and accepted it as truth but on the way to my heart another thought or idol got in the way. This is something that the Lord has been teaching me on a number of occasions, and to be honest after writing this I will probably forget it again. I am like the Israelites, who were known for their consistent inconsistency to wander. The lord is teaching me to focus on Him and Him alone, and as hard and harsh as that can be, I am always in his mercy and once I am rid of the idols that cause me to stumble I will finish digging the foundation and will plant my heart deep in the word.

I hope and pray that this message has helped you as much as it sorted my spaghetti junction of thoughts and redirects you to God as it did to me. May the Lord renew your passion to dig deep into the word and put your feet firmly on the foundation of your genuine relationship with Jesus Christ, and we will be able to say with all certainty that this foundation “will carry you through any and all turmoil. No matter what storms are raging all around, you'll stand firm if you stand on His love.”

Grace, mercy and peace

A learning growing brother in Christ.

ref Luke 6

Foundational Joy

The out-and-out Christian is a joyful Christian. The half-and-half Christian is the kind of Christian that a great many of you are, little acquainted with the Lord. Why should we live halfway up the hill and swathed in the mists, when we might have an unclouded sky and a radiant sun over our heads if we would climb higher and walk in the light of His face? Alexander Maclaren

Joy is very different from happiness, where happiness is something that is for a moment and is something we can chase for a long time. Joy is a foundation which we can come back to, we can look back to it and be reminded of it in times of trouble. In Psalm 30 it says that sorrow may tarry through the night, but joy will come in the morning. Joy is a foundation that we can all understand, as it is the heart of all people. However not everyone has the same reason for or foundation of joy. For those of us who follow Christ our foundation should be that of the God breathed word, the lamp onto our feet and the light onto our path. In the gospel of Matthew chapter 7 Jesus talks about having the firm or correct foundation, he uses the story we all know so well, of the man who build his house on the rock. He says:

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.”

(Matt 7:24-29, ESV)

It is pretty self-explanatory, if we hear God’s word and do them we will have our foundation be in God. The trials will come (rain, floods and wind) but we will be joyful because of being founded in the word of God. In fact in the epistle of James it says, Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds.

But the question comes how do we find that joy when we are going through struggles and have forgotten the foundation that we have, well in this time and age we have a great way of looking at the written word of God, we have so many ways we can look at the word thanks to technology, and we know that we can bring it to the Lord in prayer. An example of this is when the psalmist writes about being in trouble and he asks why he is going through trouble. But in verse 4 of Psalm 43 we read what he does:

Then I will go to the altar of God,

to God my exceeding joy,

and I will praise you with the lyre,

O God, my God. (Psalm 43:4 ESV)

He goes to the altar of the Lord and the psalmist rejoices in the steadfast joy he has in his saviour. So today if you are in that place where you wonder where your joy went to and your soul is sorrowful, bring it before the Lord and have a chat with our heavenly father and He will remind us of the foundation we have where nothing will, I repeat nothing will separate us from the Love of God. It is then that we will find our joy again and will rejoice being able to say God you are my refuge my strength in times of trouble.

May God richly bless you and keep you as you are reminded of the joy you have in Him. I know he reminds me often and I rejoice every time.

Blessings

Rich