Joshua 14:12a. Now therefore give me this mountain, whereof the Lord spake in that day;
Oh yes! We’ve made it through another workweek! Thank the Lord! Now it’s Saturday, our lazing time; sleeping late, not rushing to do anything, even bypassing things we earlier felt were so important to do. (smile) That’s what Saturday brings for many of us, especially the ones without young children and a busy household schedule.
Wish I could say that, because on Saturdays, I have to put on my thinking cap and try to decipher, with God’s help obviously, what the quotes our friend Anselm sent us this past week means to believers in Christ Jesus. And ofttimes they are quite inciteful and do inspire us to have a better tomorrow.
So, let’s see what our first quote today says. ‘You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.’ And isn’t that the God-awesome truth! Yes friends, as long as we are alive and able to do stuff, we should never stop learning, because learning is what keeps us alive, not only metaphorically, but also physically, for if we don’t use our faculties they will dry up and we will die. As they say, if you don’t use it, you lose it. And age is no drawback to learning. I just read recently about an eighty something year old woman receiving her first college degree and planning to go on for a second one.
Now that’s how we ought to be, always planning on something, even though we’re not sure to make it. And I believe one of the best examples of that sort of thinking in the Bible is Caleb, at eighty-five years old, saying to Joshua: ‘Now therefore give me this mountain, whereof the Lord spake in that day; for thou heardest in that day how the Anakim were there, and that the cities were great and fenced: if so be the Lord will be with me, than I shall be able to drive them out, as the Lord said,’ (Josh. 14:12)
Remember, Caleb and Joshua were two of the dozen spies who checked out the Promised Land at Moses’ behest. And they were the only two who had faith to believe that Israel was able to defeat the inhabitants, and thus were the only two people from those who originally left Egypt, blessed to enter the Land of Promise. That segues nicely into this next quote: ‘Inspiration comes from within yourself. One has to be positive. When you’re positive, good things happen.’
I don’t know if inspiration necessarily only comes from within you, but for sure, you must be positive. And when you are, good things usually happen. The opposite is also true: Think negatively, negative things will most likely happen. That’s just the way of the universe. The way God planned it. Cousin Sol wisely said, as a man thinks, so is he. (Prov. 23:7) Now that’s no lie! And as Sister Joyce (Joyce Meyer) likes to say: ‘Something good is going to happen to me today. And something good is going to happen through me today.’
Moving on, we come to the following quote: ‘Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment, until it becomes a memory.’ I believe that most of us would agree with that statement, as there are so many moments in our lives that we never paid much attention to at the time they were taking place, but when we look back, we discover that they were indeed precious and memorable. Yes, hindsight is 20-20 vision. But please, let’s stop being so busy and enjoy the moments of our lives as they happen nuh, rather than appreciating them only in hindsight.
That brings us to this quote: ‘You do not find the happy life. You make it.’ And is that ever so true. We ought not to wait on others to make us happy, otherwise we will often wait in vain. True happiness begins with us. It’s a decision we make to be happy, to be fulfilled, come what may. And the first thing on that road to happiness is having a positive outlook on life, because happiness entails a positive state of mind.
Then we need to have a good attitude towards the difficulties that come with life. For life is never a smooth, flat ride, but more often a roller coaster, with numerous up and downs, twists and turns. And the best way to get that good attitude is by believing in Jesus! Remember His memorable words to the disciples. ‘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 16:33)
Yes my people, the only way to achieve a true kind of happiness, one that’s not dependent only on our outward circumstances is by having Jesus as our Lord and Saviour. That’s because He enables us to have the inner peace and happiness we term joy, which is oh so essential for living in this dangerous and disastrous world. And our last quote encourages us as it says: ‘Try to be a rainbow in someone else’s cloud.’
Oh friends, being a ray of light in someone else’s life is ever so important, and it’s not very hard to do. We just have to be a friend, a mentor, or even a simple passer-by to inject a dash of sunshine into another’s life. And yuh know that’s the basic element of being a Christian, a follower of Christ! He said that we were supposed to be the light of the world, and to let our light shine so that others may see it and glorify our heavenly Father. Well, if that’s not being a rainbow in someone else’s dark cloud, then I don’t know what is.
And all it takes sometimes is just a smile, a kind or encouraging word, or quietly listening as someone pours out their hearts, but being there with some form of help. And having written that last sentence, it just occurred to me how easy it is for us to be a shining light, a rainbow in another person’s life without a whole lot of sacrifice on our part, and yet how many people go around shrouded in dark clouds because we supposed believers are too selfish, too busy or simply can’t be bothered to offer that li’l ray of sunshine we are quite capable of offering.
So today, my fellow saints, I’m asking us to get serious on the matter of brightening up the lives of others. And do we all need someone to offer us a ray of sunshine in these calamitous times. All we have to do is pay a li’l more attention and let the power of the Holy Spirit play a greater part in our lives. Let’s promise ourselves and our God to do that today nuh, so we can make our world a better and brighter place. Much LOVE!
…being a true Christian isn’t always difficult…it can also be as easy as…one, two, three…
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