To be able to look at life and count it all joy is a huge blessing. Although there are days that might not be as great as others, we have been able to make it through.
Lately, I have had some health challenges that have, quite frankly, scared me to my bones. I have found that I dropped my faith and started relying on and looking at people, rather than God. I completely forgot the Holy Spirit, Who keeps me, comforts me and guides me. My throughts were completely on me and how I was going to make it not only through the challenge but life. I found I was worrying about how I was going to deal with things. I completely left God out of the issue.
In my devotion time, I have been challenged with the question of, "What are you doing with the Holy Spirit?" This has come up before and must still be an issue if it is coming up again. This question causes one to pause and take a serious look at our relationship with the Lord and how and what we think of the Holy Spirit.
I am learning how to turn everything completely over to the Holy Spirit. This is a process and is not done automatically, especially since I've been trying to run things all these years. Yet, when I stop to think about someone else being responsible for my life, my brain just seems to stop moving and stay on that point. I believe it is because it's such a serious thing to do. If I turn my life completely over to the Holy Spirit, this means that I am not going to try to run anything. This means that I trust Him completely. This means that I pray, turn it completely over and wait on Him. Now, that's definitely a new concept for me. Is it one I can do? Most definitely. This turning over involved complete obedience (another thing we're working on). All this is tied into my relationship with the Lord. Every aspect of my life must be yielded to Him. This even includes thoughts, actions, desires, words, etc.
As my health challenges arose, I found myself often sitting in a quiet room (be it in the hospital or home) and just waiting to hear from the Lord. I would turn my thoughts and cares over to him and wait for His response. I found I had a peace that I still cannot describe. It was a peace that enabled me to just sit on the bed, in a chair, look out the window and not worry. I observed what was happening around me but did not worry about anything. This peace is beyond all understanding, just as the Word says it would be. I definitely counted that as joy. There is something about not worrying about anything that is indescribeable. I found that once that settles in, really settles in, it continues. It makes the next challenge easier to get through because of the peace that is known, believed and felt. I'm loving this heightened releationship with the Lord.
This is just another way of counting joy in my life. To wake up and be able to do what I do is always reason for joy. To have sense enough to recognize it, is reason for joy. I have friends who have died lately or have had major surgery or other events occur in their life. I look at them and pray they have counted it all joy. I have certainly counted it joy for them.
Do you count it all joy, even in the bad times? Praising the Lord while in the valley will often bring you up out of the valley. Praising Him while going through and sitting back, turning it all over to Him and waiting on Him is reason to count it all joy. His promises are always kept. I love Him so much. And, I love you, too!
Just counting what He has done in our lives is reason to count it all joy. Praise God from whom all blessing flow.
