It's been one of those days. Nothing major, nothing important, but just a bad, bad day. To spare you all the complaining, here's a visual:
So I'm failing Astronomy, officially, I have blisters thanks to my shoes, and I got deodorant all over my black shirt this morning. Why do I always use solid deodorant on days I wear black?? I NEVER use solid deodorant.
And these are the smaller of my worries today. This has been one of the hardest, un-motivating days in the past few months for me. To be honest, I didn't want to write this post. I didn't want to do anything really. But just as I was making up my mind to skip writing today, I realized that maybe someone else is going through a day worse than mine. Maybe someone who reads this needs encouragement. And that thought alone motivated me.
I've told you before, I'm new to reading the Bible. I've been a Christian for a while, I was saved at a young age, but I had never been an avid reader of the Bible. As a teen I lacked the passion I have now. I attribute this passion to some certain life changing events God brought me through. He really opened my eyes and I'm thankful every day for that. And being new to reading the Bible, I often need help finding certain scripture, certain passages, etc. So I've been looking to online resources such as Bible apps, studies by Mark Driscoll, devotionals by revered authors such as David Platt, John Piper, and Beth Moore, and Christian blogs.
Today I searched "verses of encouragement from the Bible" and ran across a blog by Brian Tubbs. I must say that the verses I read gave me the encouragement I needed on a hard day and I wanted to share a few of them. The first is Psalm 27:1 "The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?"(ESV) This one stuck out mainly because this is what we covered yesterday in the reading from Zechariah about God being our wall of fire. Again, God leading me to what He wants me to read. I always feel comforted by that. Kind of like I could look up and say "Well played God, well played."
Another verse I found to be encouraging today was Psalm 147:3 "He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds." (ESV) To be brokenhearted means to be filled with sadness. I am very brokenhearted. In many ways, for many reasons. Not over a specific event, or events, but just in general. This day has left me brokenhearted. I need to turn to God during these moments for healing. I can't let the stresses of life overcome me to the point that I forget that God is bigger than my problems and He can give me the strength I need to push through the hard days. He is there to lean on, to trust.
The next few verses I ran across really helped me change my sad perspective. Philippians 4:6 & 7 says "do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be known unto God. (7) And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." (ESV) I'm anxious about everything: school, work, money, boys, friends, schedule, weight, appearance, church, grades, everything! God wants me to let that anxiousness and stress go in exchange for unexplainable peace. What kind of a deal is that? He'll take my stress and I get peace? I want that. I want peace. So I continued reading, because to get this peace, God calls for me to do something - to be active.
Philippians 4:8 says "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things." (ESV) So basically, God (speaking through Paul here) is saying, Do you want peace? Do you want me to take your burdens? Then give them over to me (let go) and think on pure and praiseworthy things. Stop being so negative.
And this was the motivation I needed to get out of this funk I was in. This was the nudge I needed to get over my life and get moving for God. I had already let most of my day go to waste being mopey. So I shared this in hopes of encouraging someone else today. The key here is that you can't just read the happy, warm fuzzy verses in the Bible and think your problems will magically go away. Jesus calls for action. He says to let your requests be known to God. PRAY. Don't just complain about life - pray! And think positively. You can't have a good day if you're always living in the negative.
Having a bad day? Be active, not passive. Change your thoughts to change your mood.
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