Saying What Needs to Be Said - 28 Day Joy Challenge – Day 20 – Purity 1076

To see today's photo, go to mt4christ.org or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter. Good morning. Today's photo of a view of a paddling session on Glimmerglass Lake in Cooperstown, New York comes to us from Mike Vaccarella, who shared this scene on social media on June 19th. Mike also recently shared some photos of some great times from a camping trip with some old fraternity brothers, from college, showing that while much can change over the years, some things, like friendship, can and do endure. Well, it's Friday, and I shared Mike's photo because of its peaceful, easy feeling and the fact that I am looking forward to gliding into the weekend, as I have been bothered by a sore throat and spent most of my lat— of last evening doing what I could to recover through fluids, rest, and prayer. I feel that I have turned a corner and hope that as the day progresses, I'll get back to feeling 100%. I take an active stance with any physical infirmities that come my way. In the past, I have discovered that if I start to feel under the weather, a battery of zinc, vitamin C, and hydration, and prayer have resulted in stopping disease in its tracks. While the vitamins and water seem to help, I believe the key to the success of this remedy is the prayer. I have been bothered by the sore throat for a couple of days now and started to implement this health plan by drinking some OJ, taking some zinc, and drinking lots of water. Um, I also played the mental game of denying any problems. I didn't want to proclaim I'm sick over myself because I understand that we often receive what we believe. But as the soreness in my throat has persisted, it has been harder and harder to deny that something's happening here. So I upped the ante over the last couple of days with the vitamins and fluids, but I forgot about the key of this strategy and was reminded about what I was missing on the drive home from work yesterday afternoon. After a long day of work and ministry on Wednesday, I felt really run down after a challenging day of work yesterday and was looking forward to getting back to my place down by the river to crash. I was feeling weak, and in my weakness and rundown condition, I turned to the one who has unlimited reserves of strength to draw, draw from— God. But in my rundown state, I didn't think to ask God for strength. I just wanted to talk to him. So as I drove home yesterday, I thank God for getting me through the day. And praise him for never leaving or forsaking me. In my talking to God, I realized that I hadn't prayed for healing of this summer cold or whatever it is. As I stated, I was hoping to just ignore it and that it wouldn't manifest, but then I realized that because God is sovereign, everything that goes down under the sun is either ordained or allowed by him. So if I was sick, he knew about it and it was for a purpose. And while it can be difficult to discern if sickness comes as a negative consequence of something we have done, or due to the fallen state of the world, or as an attack from the, uh, spiritual forces of darkness, or as a test of our faith by God, I know the author of life and all healing is God. So in my conversation with the Lord, I admitted to my weakened state and confusion of why I was experiencing it, and my recognition that God knew all about it. While I can't be sure, I was getting the indication that I was being directed to rest, that maybe I was burning the candle at both ends and was too distracted. That morning, yesterday morning, I had a long testimony to blog about and neglected my regular Bible study. Which I felt convicted about and completed in the last hour of my work tour. Yet after my last job was done, I was feeling, I was feeling low, and I turned to the Bible to draw close to God again. And that needed, uh, and that need continued with this conversation on the way home. After getting this impression that I needed to rest, I realized that I never prayed for healing over this sore throat. While I had done the vitamins and fluids, I never asked God to heal me, and I realized that if I don't ask, I might not receive. So I prayed to the Lord for healing and trusted him to give me— give it to me in his timing. Right after the prayer, I felt a little better, and that is when Shane and Shane's song "You've Already Won" came on the radio, reminding me that I'm fighting a battle you've already won, causing me to laugh at myself and to praise the Lord by singing along. While I didn't receive instant healing, I understood that this too shall pass, that healing was on its way, reminding me that we need to actually say what needs to be said. We need to pray. We need to ask God to help us to receive. We not only have to believe, we need to ask. We need to talk to the Lord and say what needs to be said, because when we do, amazing things can happen. And this principle, to say what needs to be said, can do some mighty work in our earthly relationships as well. And that brings us to our current series where I'm walking through the 28 Days to Joy Challenge, because we are encouraging ourselves and others, you, to find peace, uh, in our lives by increasing our capacity for joy and by building our emotional resilience through simple practices of quieting and appreciation. The 28-Day Joy Challenge is based on Dr. Marcus Warner and Chris Courcy's latest book, The Four Habits of Joy-Filled People, and you can sign up to take it for free and purchase a variety of books from Warner and Courcy on the topic of joy by going to forhabits.org, and the link for that is on the blog. So let's jump into Day 20, which will direct us to pass along the joy by saying what needs to be said, that we love and appreciate the people in our lives. And so the 28 Days of Joy Challenge says Day 20: Pass Along the Joy. Welcome to Day 20 of the 28 Days to Joy Challenge. Today's encouragement: For many of us, appreciation has seemed too simple to do anything worthwhile for our brains. Looking back over the last 3 weeks of this challenge, do you see any changes in yourself? Do you feel lighter or more present in your life? If not, keep going to discover the benefits of joy. Today's practice, Exercise 20: Today we practice appreciating our people and sharing our joy with them. How this practice will benefit you: Our joy is strengthened by the people in our lives. Joy spreads when we express our appreciation. Exercise steps: Think about a favorite shared memory with a close friend. What were you doing? Why was this special? Share thoughts and reflections with your friend, along with a word of appreciation for what qualities you enjoy in them. In your friend. Have fun with this exercise. We pick up tomorrow with more joy practice. And that, of course, is from our good friends at 4habits.org. I have to admit that the sharing or relational aspects of these joy challenges can be, can really be an act of faith. Because of the difficulties of human relationships, we can easily tend to isolate ourselves from one another because we don't want to appear to be vulnerable, weak, dependent, or foolish to one another. The awkwardness of sharing our emotions or the risk of having our emotional expressions being rejected can keep us from telling one another what we most desperately need to hear: that we are loved, that we are appreciated. So when these practices tell us to tell a friend, we really need to practice the sharing. Me, I have my blog to tell the people involved and have a written record of how I feel, but I also practice sharing my appreciash by telling them. I constantly try to express how much I love and appreciate my wife, Tammy Lynn, and it may not be much of a surprise that today's instructions caused me to think of her. The shared memory that I thought of when I sat down to do today's practice was of one of the earliest weekends of our relationship as boyfriend and girlfriend, a short-lived romance as I quickly popped the question making her my fiancée. But anyway, Tammy Lynn's children were away for the weekend and we got to spend some time alone at her place, and we discussed what we wanted to do with our time alone. As Christians who were committed to sexual purity, sex was being reserved for marriage. So as we sought to get to know one another, we pondered what we would do with the few hours we had to ourselves. I suggested that we just spend, just spend the day enjoying each other's company, stating how many couples plan all types of activities or dates in their courtship but don't spend time just getting comfortable with one another. So we spent the day just hanging out, talking, looking into one another's eyes. We may have listened to some music, but we didn't watch TV or really do anything, as the point of the day together was just to be one— be with one another. It was a great day, and we have continued to practice being together from time to time to this day. I often tell Tammy Lynn how I appreciate her beauty, spirit, humor, and faith. And marvel over how the Lord brought us together. We have truly been blessed by the Lord with one another, and we often say what needs to be said—that we love and appreciate each other. So what about you? What shared memory do you have that gives you joy? A big part of this practice is telling the other person that you appreciated that time together and letting them know what you appreciate about them. So pass the joy along to them by telling them just how much joy you had with them and by saying what needs to be said. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the New Living Translation Bible Promise Book for Men. This morning's meditation verse is Galatians 2:20. The word of God says, my old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Today's verse is the quintessential surrender verse and is our core direction as disciples of Jesus Christ. It is no longer I who live. As a disciple of Jesus Christ, I seek to do things according to his will and ways. By embracing this proclamation of faith, you enter into God's purpose for your life. So say it. It needs to be said. And live it. As always, I invite all to go to mtforchrist.org where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. Today we continue sharing from A.W. Pink's The Holy Spirit as we continue sharing from Chapter 10, The Holy Spirit Regenerating. And today's topic is Regeneration is the Sole Work of the Spirit. So if you want to read about that, see what A.W. Pink has to say about that, go to mtforchrist.org and you'll see that resource at the end of today's blog post. As you can probably hear, my voice is still struggling. Um, I expect healing to come eventually, uh, in God's timing. I really do feel better, but it, uh, it doesn't sound better. Um, and, uh, well, we'll wait on the Lord for that, and we trust him for good things to come. Um, and, uh, that's a big part of our faith is, is praying and waiting for things to come from God. Um, we encourage you to check out our teachings that we have on the podcast, uh, for Victory Over the Darkness, uh, Bondage Breaker Freedom in Christ. It's all based on the Word of God and the teachings of Dr. Neil Anderson because they were transformational in my journey. I am tired and I got to go to work, so I'm just gonna pray today and get, you know, let's get, let's enjoy the fact that it's Friday. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you so much for all that you have done for us. We thank you for anyone who's listening or reading today's message. We pray for— we pray that you bless them and come alongside them in their prayer request, in their walk of faith. And Lord, we just pray that you go before us, that you'd open our eyes to the things you want us to see and lead our steps in the things you would have us do. It's all we want to do is represent you in your kingdom and share the love of God with others, to say the things that need to be said, um, that people need Jesus and, uh, that he can change their life. So, Lord, we thank you, we praise you, and we love you. And we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.