Sometimes I go to church with thoughts of 'it would be so nice to sleep in this morning', but I leave there feeling full of the Holy Spirit, a love for God's Word, feeling loved, praising the holiness of God and the majesty of Jesus. This makes me happy, but more important I feel full of energy to tackle whatever comes my way during the following week.
I'm having a busy day with many things to do, but I change my clothes and go to the gym to work-out. Sometimes I drag my way through the door thinking, 'I'd rather take a nap then exercise', but on my way home I realize that my energy has been renewed. Exercise gets your blood flowing and helps sustain your muscle strength.
I'm energized by a good Bible study or reading a good book. When I have the time to write a blog, I'm totally energized! To have free time to write a short story, or a poem relaxes me. When I write, I'm happy stress-free and content, not worried about anything, or what anyone else is thinking or doing.
People in your life can give you energy, or they can rob you of joy and peace. Best to stay away from those who cause you pain. When your joy and peace slip away, stress comes and steals your energy and you are not happy. We need to remember that God has a plan for our life and what we endure is for a purpose. Unsettled, angry people are not happy people. They often are desperate to find the source of their unhappiness and look for someone to blame so they can make sense of their life and discover why they can't be happy. Satan does some of his best work in this scenario. As much as you may want to, you can't 'fix' them, but God can, so pray for them.
"For I know the plans I have for you", declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11
These words were given to Israel, but they apply to all of God's children. God can solve every mystery in our life; we just need to go to Him in faith, trusting that He'll be true to His Word.
Rumi was a 13th century Persian Poet who wrote a lot about love
and finding peace in our lives. He wrote,
"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field.
I'll meet you there."
Rumi understands that there is a right and a wrong - I think he implies that there is a safe haven, a space maybe where pressures of life do not drag us into despair. For a writer, especially a poet, that place is playing with words. We can reveal truth in an unconventional way, indirectly. By-the-way, if you enjoy poetry, one third of the Old Testament in the Bible is written in poetry form; some of the best poetry the world has seen.
How often do we hear, "Nothing lasts!" How very true - we can't go to the gym once a year and expect any benefit to come from it; we need to go on a regular basis. We talk a lot today about renewable energy; we use it once, and then, use it again. We eat a meal, but after a few hours, we'll eat again.
I find it interesting in Exodus 16 how the Lord dealt with feeding the Jews when they were wandering around the desert. God sent bread from heaven which they called Manna. Each person took what they wanted and were told they couldn't keep any for the next day. Strange? Some didn't listen - we humans have a history of wanting to do it 'our way'. The next morning, the manna was crawling with maggots and had began to smell bad. Yuck! Manna came from the sky six days a week and on the sixth day, they were allowed to keep enough for the next day which was the Sabbath. The Israelites ate this stuff for forty years; I hope it was good.
Why did God do that? He wanted His people to learn to depend on Him alone, not themselves. He wanted them to come to Him and trust Him for their needs, actually their very lives, not just now and then when they were in real trouble, but every single day. We can go to the New Testament and read one of the most repeated prayers in the church from Matthew 6:9 -
"Our Father in heaven
holy is your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread. . .
Again Jesus who is God in a human body, taught his followers to pray for daily bread. Coming to Jesus as your Lord and Savior is a wonderful way to be energized. It's like taking a heavy painful burden and handing it to Him because you know He cares for you and never expected you to carry your burdens all by yourself.
There is a wonderful old hymn 'Great Is Thy Faithfulness' whose chorus is taken from Lamentations 3:22-33 -
"Great is thy faithfulness, great is they faithfulness,
Morning by morning new mercies I see;
All I have needed Thy hand has provided -
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord unto me!"
Just like the manna and daily bread, God's mercies are new every morning - day after day. Just come to Him; we can be so empty. Empty of everything and He's there to fill us up - a new tank of gas to start the day. We do a lot of things but it's God alone who can give us the energy we need to fight the battles of this world; and there are many.
Lord please give me a nudge every morning, because sometimes I forget to come to you and start trying to solve problems and fight battles alone and soon, my energy is depleted and I'm not very content. Thank you Lord for Your faithfulness.
