What a Joy to be Alive!

"And God said let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth’…And God saw every thing that He had made, and, behold, it was very good…" Genesis 1:26, 27, 28a, 31

Too often in this life, we are caught up in the monotony of everyday living and we forget to take the time and just enjoy life, simply take pleasure in it. God did not put us on this earth to weep about how hard it is to make the money that will put food in children’s mouths, or to just live every day one after the other, never changing the routine, afraid to do something new, because "what if it bites?"

"Jesus answered them, Do ye now believe? Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me. These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." John 16:31-33

As Christians Christ had told us that we are to expect trials and tribulations as we strive to follow Him, we are to expect our teenagers to go and get into things that they shouldn’t have, we are to not be surprised when somebody we love falls into sin, we are to expect temptation and unexpected anger at every turn…why, because that is how sin works, that is how the Devil works. The Devil does not want you to have a triumphant Christian life in the service of Christ, the Devil wants you to cower in your corner and tell the Lord that you are not able to do His will.

"In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." Jesus is telling us to expect people to be against us when we witness to them, He is telling us to expect to have everybody against us when we try to do the right thing, we should expect the Devil to try and stop us when we make that decision to bring our lives in total humble obedience before Christ. Yet do you know what, Jesus also tells us to be of good cheer because all of these things have been overcome by Christ! With the power of the Lord Jesus Christ working in our lives, we can overcome every single temptation that comes our way too!

So people, it is time to cheer up and it is time to start enjoying life on this earth! We need to stop hiding in that corner moaning about how hard it is to be a Christian, and about how hard it is to follow Jesus, we were called to a life of triumphant living, not a life of constant moaning!

"Nay, in all these things we are more then conquerors through Him that loved us…nor any other thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Romans 8:37,39b

"And He said unto me, ‘My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.’ Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me." II Corinthians 12:9

In the end, we are only human, and on top of that, we have a sinful nature. Still, what we Christians do not understand most of the time is that we are here on this earth to bring God the glory that He deserves!

We are here to bring glory to Him, and even when we do fall, even when we give in to that temptation, Christ is right there ready to help us out of the mess, that we made out of our lives.

Why does Christ do that? Because first off, He loves us, and second, it is when He reaches out His mighty hand and pulls us up out of the muck that He gets the thanksgiving and glory He should have gotten from us in the first place.