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I sit here very early in the morning, thinking about all the things God has been impressing upon me lately, most recently at 3am this morning. Can I be honest? This isn’t a subject I am just dying to share with the whole world, but I felt this strong leading by the Spirit to share it with you. (By “leading”, I merely mean that the Holy Spirit , the Spirit of God, gave me a strong urging.) Plus, I feel safe sharing because you are always so supportive.
I have told you before that I struggle with joy. I allow little things in life to steal my happiness. While in the midst of a wonderful morning, one small thing can happen and it changes my whole outlook. This frustrates me more than you know. Can you relate?
For me, struggling with joy isn’t an overarching sadness or depression, it is just the inability to delight in all the things around me. Despite all the many blessings God has covered me in, I don’t fully embrace the greatness of it. What scares me about it is that it lurks, just sitting back there, it isn’t greatly predominant in my life. Many times I don’t even realize it is happening. It is a slow creeping in that just feels rather normal, sadly enough.
I have a big feeling that I am not the only one.
Honestly, as I sit at my computer, I am thinking, “Why does God want me to reveal this right now? What is He trying to tell me?”. Because, as I think of it, it really isn’t a big deal. It is not preventing me from being a wife, mother or friend. I still function quite well through each day. I still love the Lord and know I am His child.
But…
Guess what? God didn’t call us to mediocrity. He called us to abundant blessing and greatness and joy. If we live anything less, we are not accepting the most beautiful gift we could ever receive. Grace. We were created so he could delight in us. Does he delight in you?
Did you know that grace is a gift we get just for being God’s child? It isn’t something you can earn. Each day I can spend time with the Lord, be a perfect wife, mother and friend and that doesn’t change it. I can do none of those things and I still receive this gift. I can do nothing to earn it. My job is to not only accept it, but to delight and revel in this amazing gift he has given me.
Let me put it another way. Have you ever had someone do something for you or give you something that you totally didn’t deserve? That is grace.
So what does all this have to do with bringing things “Out Into the Light”?
My sister and I were talking last night, and she said something that was so profound to me. It didn’t really hit me until this morning. “When things are brought out into the light, they lose their power.” Little sisters can be so smart that way!
If I apply that to my own personal sin, it is my own laziness in accepting the small things that come into my everyday life. The situations that I allow to distort my vision of how God created things to be. Satan’s greatest tool is deception and distraction. He deceives us by altering our view of how God created life to be.
Instead of going through each day struggling with personal battles, God tells us to bring them out into the light. He reveals the deep things of darkness and brings deep shadows into the light. (Job 12:22)
I was searching this morning for scripture that really drove this point home. As I did so, I came across this great page someone created that had all these verses from the Bible that support God’s desire for us to live in the light. You can see more of them here, but here were a few of my favorites.
John 3:19-21 “This is the judgment: that light has entered the world, and men have preferred darkness to light because their deeds were evil. Everybody who does wrong hates the light and keeps away from it, for fear his deeds may be exposed. But everybody who is living by the truth will come to the light to make it plain that all he has done has been done through God.”
John 12:46 “I [Jesus] have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.”
James 5:16 You should get in the habit of admitting your sins to each other and praying for each other, so that you may be healed….
Where are you today? Are you receiving God’s grace? Are you living life abundantly? Or, are you letting the Evil One (yes, Satan) steal your joy?
What a great reminder to all of us! One of Satan’s biggest tools to use on us is shame. He tells us lies & causes us to keep things hidden in shame. But when we reveal those things & share them with others (bring them into the light) Satan looses his grip on us. We have been redeemed!
Thank you for sharing your struggle & bringing things into the light.
Kelly,
Thanks for being so honest. I think we’ve all been there, but people don’t like to admit it. If you haven’t read Ann Voskamp’s book 1000 Gifts, A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are, I “dare” you too. If you have read it, I “dare” you to start your own gratitude list. It’s changed my life!
Lara – Actually I am reading it right now! Maybe that is what prompted my post…. 🙂
I was struggling with the same thing this morning. I woke up singing praise songs and by the time I got to work feeling sad. Thank you for sharing and reminding me that I must delight in the little ways God reveals himself and reject the ways Satan tries to rob my joy.
Kelly, thank you so much for your bravery! I too struggle with “sweating the small stuff.” One of my goals for 2011, was to spend 1 hour everyday meditating, praying, and regrouping. What a tremendous blessing this has been! It allows me to be grateful and spend time with God thanking him for all the things in my life that are great.
Thank you for sharing! 😉
Thanks so much for sharing! It was a blessing to read your post this AM. I Struggle with this as well.
Amen! I think we all struggle with this from time to time. I love what you said– God hasn’t called us to mediocrity. So true! Thanks for your transparency and obedience in sharing this.
This was just the encouragement that I needed right now. I too have allowed my joy to be taken by the little things. My focus is totally in the wrong place. Thank you for the kick I needed to remind myself that joy is a gift from God that is always there and what he wants me to have. I just have to grab it back!!
Wow Kelly…I think maybe God had you write this just for me! Thank you for listening to the Holy Spirit’s urging and having the courage to share this. I have really been struggling with my joy being stolen and have always been WAY too prideful about not allowing it to happen…until now. I may re-post part of this on my FB page if that’s ok with you and put the link back to here so others can read it…
Thanks again!
thanks… this is just what I needed today.
I try to remind myself – it is a choice: you can allow someone/something to steal your JOY or…. you can pray for peace over the situation. I woke up during one night with someone on my mind, who is very bitter and trying to bring me down. I started praying for this person and was able to fall back asleep and rest. I have NOT mastered this but continue taking baby steps. As I look back to when I FIRST DECIDED to not allow others to steal my joy, I see I have come a LONG way. 🙂 I still have much praying to do, but HE will guide IF you ask for HIS WILL.
Thank you so much for sharing this. I struggle with the exact same thing, and you’re right, it is frustrating. It seems like it should be so easy to always be thankful to the point of joy. Thank God He will finish the good work He’s begun and one day I’ll be there.
Bless you! 🙂