An excerpt from my early morning text to my children yesterday was: \u201cGood Sunday morning, my darlings. Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and all that is within me, AND out of me!\u201d They knew what I meant. I was filled with joy because over the previous couple of days, I experienced the results of food poisoning \u2013 unwise food choices or simply the stomach flu that led to misery. I really tried to choose joy in the midst of it all. I prayed and praised with fervor for healing. My kids were my prayer partners. Good news \u2013 the misery led me to my friend, the internet, which led me to the BRAT method for nausea and the other accompanying yuck! BRAT stands for bananas \u2013 rice \u2013 apples \u2013 toast. I chose applesauce and toast. It helped. Still with symptoms the next day \u2013 I chose that as my nourishment again. That evening, I had a banana. Yesterday, Sunday, I woke feeling like a brand-new woman with the bonus of a good clean out! I apologize \u2013 TMI!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I remembered this display at my daughter\u2019s home. \u201cChoose Joy\u201d. How can we count all this yucky stuff (i.e., illness, disappointments, financial pressures, politics, family issues, etc.) as joy? The Apostle James tells us how: \u201cDear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.\u201d (James 1:2) WHAT? What were you thinking, dear James? You aren\u2019t here in our 2020 \u2013 Covid, raging fires, hurricanes, lost jobs, riots, home schooling, wearing masks?
I hear people say: \u201cThese are unprecedented times\u201d, but, oh, not-so! Let\u2019s take a look at James\u2019 firsthand experience and what it looked like when he wrote that verse. It was during a time when Christians faced insurmountable problems that had stolen their joy. In their defense, those believers had justifiable reasons for bad attitudes. They faced great persecution, unrelenting trials and sufferings \u2014 from murder to imprisonment at the hands of Saul, who was zealous to destroy the church and anyone associated with Jesus. As a result, these Christians lived in poverty, forced to scrounge for food to service. Some were sick and everyone was exhausted. They lived in fear, mourning, confusion, and hopelessness.
It makes the 2020\u2019s, and my little bout with tummy stuff, seem like heaven-on-earth. Those folks had every right to be negative and pessimistic. James acknowledged their suffering but also wanted to give them hope and encouragement. He told them inner joy could still be theirs if they deliberately chose to take control of their thinking and change their attitude. He encouraged them to pause and refocus on their faith.
Aw! Faith! I\u2019m so grateful to be on this side of faith and trust in our Sovereign God. One of the hardest lessons we Christians must learn is how to be joyful in the midst of pain and suffering. So, what did James mean when he said: \u201cCount it all joy\u201d? He is telling us to consider what we are going through as a matter of joy, not because the thing itself is something that is joy-filled, but because tough stuff of any kind works patience within us. And, for me, in my conjured-up joy, I recognized the blessing of health. My joy, despite my woe, created gratitude in my heart \u2013 not to take good health for granted when we have it. Our suffering is not an exercise in futility. God has a purpose, and that purpose is always good. We can count all things joy because God is working in all situations, even the most painful. God really IS working in all these unprecedented times we are living through right now.
Choosing joy during the good and the bad days creates faith and trust that God really is working all these pains and sufferings for our good. It creates hope that these days will be soon be over. I\u2019m here to tell you \u201cI\u2019ve chosen joy\u201d and \u201cThe joy of the Lord is my strength\u201d (Nehemiah 8:10). Won\u2019t you let it be your strength today and tomorrow, too?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An excerpt from my early morning text to my children yesterday was: \u201cGood Sunday morning, my darlings. Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and all that is within me, AND out of me!\u201d They knew what I meant. I was filled with joy because over the previous couple of days, I experienced the results of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13200,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13199"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13199\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13201,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13199\/revisions\/13201"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}