Therefore, with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. Isaiah 12:3 KJV
Now, as we were saying last week, our Heavenly Father & Good Shepherd is mindful of all the Prayers/Requests you sent to Heaven since January. You will sincerely agree with me that a good deal of your petitions have been granted. I also agree with you that time may seem to be conspiring against quite a handful of your remaining expectations. Or it may even be that in your case, it is the most strategic issue that hasn’t been resolved. Now here we are…4th Dec. It may look like God has even removed your issue from His Keep – in – View file! There is the temptation to heighten your prayer tempo or all together give up. There is the danger of losing your joy. No, my dear.
Your last joker is your JOY!!! In face of near-defeat or intimidating challenges or obstacles or disappointment, the spiritual irony is that you must sustain your joy!
How can you sustain joy when you feel frustrated or defeated or even let down?
- Make a list of all the victories/blessings you have enjoyed in the past. Include the blessings that came when you didn’t even pray for them. Please remember to start that list with the fact that you are alive!
- Ask yourself whether or not God has been faithful & gracious to you. Your positive answer will activate your JOY! Yes, go ahead: I see you smiling & nodding your head in consent. Go ahead & smile.
- Ask yourself whether or not God is still faithful, gracious & able to do what is remaining.
- Give God quality Thanksgiving for what He has already done. Thank God genuinely because you consider Him faithful & able to come through for you in the area(s) that remain. Thank God that you are sane enough to recognize your remaining needs! I mean a mentally unbalanced person doesn’t even care about comforts or cars or houses or marriage or business or promotion, etc. As you focus on Thanksgiving for what you already are & what you already have, your JOY will be sustained.
In any case, God expects us to give thanks in all situations.
In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. 1Thessalonians 5:18 KJV
Now take notice that the Scripture doesn’t say for all things give thanks… It does says in all things give thanks… You are not called to give thanks for any negative situation. You are only required to give thanks even while you are going through the negative situation because your Thanksgiving in the midst of the negative situation draws God into your situation. Now when Jehovah, your God & Father arrives in His glorious majesty & power, every prison walls are shaken to their foundation. Am sure you remember Apostle Paul & Silas. They didn’t obtain deliverance by grumbling & fretting or even praying frantically. They used their joker. They counted God faithful & able. In JOY, they broke out in unreasonable Praise & Thanksgiving! Suddenly, the One who inhabits the Praise of His people arrived & every obstacle gave way!!
Now how could Paul & Silas praise while in incarceration?
They maintained their JOY notwithstanding their unpleasant experience!!!
So how about you?
With JOY, sustained by Quality Thanksgiving, you will also draw the Water of Divine Intervention, Blessing, Provision, & Protection.
Isaiah counsels in our opening Scripture that the weapon for drawing that final Miracle or Blessing from the Well of Salvation or Well of Blessing or Well of Answered Prayers is Joyful Thanksgiving.
It is still December, our Month of Recalling the Lord’s Great Faithfulness!!!