Something Beautiful

Psalm 16
5 LORD, you have assigned me my portion and my cup;
you have made my lot secure.
6 The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
surely I have a delightful inheritance.
7 I will praise the LORD, who counsels me;
even at night my heart instructs me.
8 I keep my eyes always on the LORD.
With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
9 Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
my body also will rest secure,
10 because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead,
nor will you let your faithful [b] one see decay.
11 You make known to me the path of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence,
with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

Depression is not my friend. It is not something I enjoy, nor do I think anyone does for that matter. It kind of puts a grey stormy cloud around everything. But yet I stand amazed on days like today when God takes that cloud and completely lifts it from me, and I feel as light as a feather. On days like today, I believe God just picks me up and loves on me all day, and fills my heart with joy. For at least a day, the hurt just isn’t there, it is healed. And it may come back tomorrow, and it may not, and I pray that it doesn’t. But that is not a worry right now, for right now, I’m gonna bask in some joy.

There is something to be said for keeping our eyes on the Lord, we will not be shaken. When our eyes are dead pan set on the Lord, there is nothing that can hinder our gaze. He is pure light, pure love, pure joy, and when we are in his presence and lift our eyes to him, there is the joy. Not to say that we won’t still hurt, not to say that bad things won’t happen, not to say that we won’t have another “one of those days” – but in the midst of this, keep your eyes fixed my darling, and you will not be shaken. Not that you won’t have hurt, but you will not be shaken out of his loving arms.

Joy is a gift for every single one of us, some of just have to learn how to receive it. Just because we struggle with depression, or addiction, or have a past history of hurt and pain – this cannot rob us of our joy unless we let it. There will be days where we struggle with feelings and memories and emotions – there will be days when joy seems like the furthest thing from what we are feeling, but even in the midst we must know that it is only temporary. Every single day we must re-fix of our gaze, every single day!!! As we pour out our heart to God, seek forgiveness, let him into the darkest places, ask him to fill us up with him, ask for nothing to satisfy us like seeking him and serving him – joy will come. It comes a bit more difficulty to those of us who tend to be melancholy, it may look different on those of us who tend towards depression. But we can still have it! It may require that we step outside of our own circumstances, and serve someone else, that may be where we find joy. It may require that we come to some degree of acceptance regarding circumstances in our lives, it may require a consistent conscious effort of refocusing our thoughts, but we can have it, we can have joy. He wants us to have joy. Let your heart be glad, let your tongue rejoice, let your body REST in him, he has already won. We were bought with the precious blood of Christ, the joy is ours, let’s choose to receive it regardless of circumstances. Get down on your knees girl, and wait for something beautiful!!!