Do Longer Winters Mean that God Doesn’t Want Us to Be Happy? - Purity 1572

Welcome to the MT for Christ 24/7 podcast. I am M.t. Clark, and this is today's photo. To see today's photo, go to mtforchrist.com or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter, or watch us on YouTube. Good morning. Today's photo of the sun shining through the trees at the edge of the snow-covered farmlands on Waite Road in Easton, New York comes to us from yours truly as I captured this serene winter scene while I was out walking with my canine pal Harley yesterday morning. Well, it's Monday, and in case you missed the Groundhog Day results yesterday, the word on the street is that Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, which superstition tells us means there will be 6 more weeks of winter. While 6 more weeks of winter from early February to mid-March would not be too surprising for residents of the North, I don't believe in superstitions and don't base my happiness on which, uh, on, on which way the wind blows. Uh, besides, according to CBS Pittsburgh's KDKA digital web producer Madeline Bartos, Punxsutawney Phil has only been right 30% of the time between 2014 and 2023. So I guess I will trust the Lord with the weather. And with all the days of my life. Um, you know, yeah, anyway, um, so am I going to believe a groundhog? I don't think so. If, you know, and does that mean God doesn't, you know, if, if, if is God, you know, mad at us and going to make us, uh, suffer through another 6-week winter? Um, You know, yeah, maybe. Anyway, no, he's not. If we don't care for the winter, those colder weeks will help us grow in patience and appreciation for the warmer months ahead. You know, the winter months could be used by God to make us rely on him or may cause us to seek our purpose in God's kingdom further south. Some businesses actually like the colder weather and some people like the colder weather. So it's for them, it's a blessing. But for us who don't like it, oh well. You know, the bottom line is that God doesn't want us to be overly concerned with the circumstances in this world, and instead we should seek our peace and joy in him. Because God sent us Jesus Christ, we can be assured that he wants us to live and live more abundantly. The gospel tells us, you know, that God wants us to be happy with him forever. Speaking of God wanting us to be happy, the Turning Point devotion for today addresses that topic, and I'm sharing it on the blog today to encourage us all to not worry but to be happy with God. David Jeremiah writes, God wants you happy. A cynic wants to define Christians as people who live in fear of someone somewhere being happy, but That is, the cynic had the impression that God wants us to make life burdensome and difficult. A person who believes that has never read the Bible. 13 times in the Old Testament, we find the phrase, "Blessed is the man who." What does blessed mean in Scripture? In modern English translations, it is often translated as happy or joyful. In other words, God wants us to be happy and joyful in life and gives us instructions on how to achieve that goal. We are blessed when we walk in God's way, Psalm 1:1, when we trust in God, Psalm 84:12, when our sins are forgiven, Psalm 32:2, when we dwell in God's presence, Psalm 65:4, when we rely on God's strength, um, Psalm 84:5. And more. God would not have provided ways for us to be happy and joyful if he did not intend for us to be so. Meditate on these and other verses which promise blessedness. It is there for the receiving for all who seek it God's way. Now, it's from David Jeremiah, and he also shares a, a quote from D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, which says, seek for happiness and you will never find it. Seek righteousness and you will discover you are happy. Amen. And, um, you know, the key to finding happiness is by agreeing with and living according to God's ways. Our blessed or happy state begins with our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins through our faith in Jesus Christ. The fact we are forgiven and promised eternal, eternal life with God should give us continuous joy. But our happiness was never intended to just stay there. When we act in ways that go against God's word in our behaviors, attitudes, emotions, or mind states, we shouldn't just disregard our guilt by claiming our forgiveness in Christ. That's cheap grace, and there is no blessedness for the one claiming to be God's child but who is living outside of his ways. That is why Jeremiah and Lloyd-Jones' words direct us to meditate on and to follow God's righteous ways. Our pathway to peace and joy comes from a personal relationship with God and pursuing his righteousness. We say no to the bad of this world that may deceive us into believing it is fun, cool, or pleasurable, and say yes to what God says is good. If we walk in God's ways, we will experience the happiness that comes from being right with God and living right with it. And, and today's Bible verse, uh, verses come to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Cruis. This morning's meditation verse comes from the section on humility and pride, and the resource references 2 Chronicles 7:13-16 but shares just verse 14, which says, if my people who are called by my name humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. Today's verse falls under the 22nd point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on humility and pride. And that 22nd point is: God is ready to forgive and bless his people when they humble themselves before him. In true repentance. Today's Bible verse reminds us that God's plan was always grace. God has always been merciful and has encouraged mankind to be at peace with him by humbling ourselves with confession and turning to God's ways in repentance. God requires us to see our sin, seek his, seek his forgiveness, and to seek his righteous ways to live with him forever. He wants to save us but calls us to come into his kingdom with humility and repentance. As always, we encourage everyone to go to mtforchrist.com, where we always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist our brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. Today we continue sharing from Day by Day Along the Way by J.E. Adams. And it's that, that book is a 365-day devotional, and we're on day 71, where Adams shares Proverbs 12:13a, which says, evil person is trapped by the transgression of his lips. And J.E. Adams writes, I feel trapped in this marriage, he complains. I'm trapped in this job, says another. One reason for such a feeling is because of one's sin. Before whining or complaining, it would be appropriate to consider your lifestyle. Has sin led you into a trap of which you are complaining? If so, there is certainly a way out. No one need remain trapped by sin since Christ came to free us from it. Christian, confess your sin to your Father in Heaven, then turn from it. Often It is the very elements of the sin itself that trap. Bad marriage? Why did you marry an unbeliever? Trouble at work? Is your attitude toward work unbiblical? Work was intended for man's good and became a curse following Adam's sin, but it can be blessed again if you consider it in the light of working for Christ. Remember 1 Corinthians 10:13. Here the emphasis is upon your speech. What have you said that has trapped you? A wrongful promise, a spiteful word, a lie now discovered as such. Confession and forgiveness of sin is the only way out. Amen. Yeah, a lot, a lot there, uh, to unpack in J.E. Adams' commentary. Um, not only the things we do that trap us, that sin. When we make sinful choices and stay in them and don't turn from them, we can make all kinds of decisions that keep us trapped in sin. You know, if you're— if you go into sin with another person and decide to stay with that person, you will suffer, uh, the both of you, the longer you sin. And the good news is you could both repent and come to the Lord and the Lord at the center of your, your relationship, um, to get out of that sin. And, um, and also the things you say, um, our attitudes can trap us in this negative mind state of complaining. You know, if we looked at the winter, we would just complain that we hate winter, but it wouldn't change the weather. It would change our attitude towards life, but, uh It wouldn't help. And so we have to watch that the spiteful words we use, the lies we, you know, the lies we say, or the wrongful promises. You know, we shouldn't promise things we can't keep. You know, Jesus said, let our yes be yes and our no be no, because he didn't want us to be trapped by our words. And so we look for freedom, and, um, we look to Christ to lead us there. His example shows us how to live a righteous life, and You know, God calls us to turn from the wrong things we do and the wrong things we say, to live with him in peace and to discover true happiness that's based on his peace and joy. And that is why we always ask the question: Have you fully surrendered to God? Do you believe in Jesus Christ? Have you made him your Lord and Savior? And are you following him with the way you live? Are you turning from your sin? Are you humbling yourself and following the Lord's ways for your life? Um, we know, and we're not perfect, I am not perfect, um, but, um, when you, when you get on that righteous path to follow the Lord, things go much better for you. Although you may suffer for it, um, you'll have peace and true blessedness, um, happiness by being right with God and living in the right way. And You know, God will show you the way out, and He'll show you the purpose for your life. And part of my purpose is leading the Celebrate Freedom support group at Starpoint Church. It's a Christian recovery and discipleship group that meets on Wednesday evenings in the K-3rd grade classroom. So if you'd like to join us for that support group, you can register by going to the Starpoint Church's website and going to the events and clicking on one of our meetings and registering. Or you can just show up at 6:30 or shortly before 6:30 so we can let you in. Uh, the doors do lock automatically, so we get all again to the building, um, to welcome you into our, our group. Um, if you need recovery but you are not in Upstate New York and can't get there, um, we— there's good news. We are doing all of our Celebrate Freedom teachings, uh, on YouTube. We've started the series and we're scheduled to do another one this evening So if you'd like to check those out, go to our YouTube playlist page on mt4christ.com or on YouTube and search for Christian Recovery Celebrate Freedom with M.t. Clark, and you'll find the playlist with all our episodes thus far. So we encourage you to start with Lesson 1 and go to Lesson 2, 3, 4, 5, and I think tonight is Lesson 6, or I'm not sure, it's Lesson 5, which is Turn, from the Celebrate Recovery material, but it's actually less than 6 because I did an introduction called the ABCs to Celebrate Freedom first. So we encourage you to check those out. If you aren't really sure about recovery, we do offer other playlists, uh, that can help you find or increase your freedom in Christ. We've done Victory Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, and Freedom in Christ, all based on the work of Dr. Neil T. Anderson. And Freedom in Christ Ministries. And we've done other studies, uh, basically, um, that you can check out on our playlist page. So we invite you to check those out, and we hope it encourages you. And if you do feel encouraged, we'd appreciate your support and donations. You can go to mtforchrist.com to give at our donations or payments page. Um, you can pay via PayPal, Venmo, or the Cash App currently, and we're working on more ways that, uh, you can give donations currently. We just changed our accounting software to QuickBooks, and I think there's another way, but I got to figure it out. Anyway, we would love for you to support us in promoting Christian recovery and discipleship in this— our modern times, because it's dark out there and people need the light. And we're trying to encourage people to not only find their faith in Jesus but to find their freedom in Christ. So We encourage your support. And we always end by asking the question, are you empty for Christ too? It's a clever play on words, or so we thought, you know, basically to empty yourself of the worldly things and to allow the Holy Spirit to come in and to guide you through life. And if you're already doing that, we say great, keep on walking and talking with God. If not, we encourage you to pray because we know that the Lord will hear that prayer. And he'll lead you in the way you should go. And we know prayer works, and that's why we pray every day, like right now. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you so much for your goodness and your grace to lead us through the hard times in winter or any other time of the year, um, because we found our peace in you and our joy in you. And, um, we just pray for you to go before us today, Lord, because we need your wisdom and strength, and, um, we need you to show us the way. So we're praying for that. And we're also praying for anyone reading, watching, or listening today's message, Lord, that you come alongside them and bless them and their prayer request and their walk of faith, Lord, because we all need your help, uh, to find your way. And, um, We're asking for it today. We're asking for your help and guidance. We thank you, we praise you, we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.