Day 7 - Week 20 - 1 John 5:12 "The one who has the Son has life; the one who doesn't have the Son of God, does not have life."

1 John 5:11-15
And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.  The one who has the Son has life; the one who doesn't have the Son of God does not have life.  I write these things so that you who believe in the name of the Son of God will know you have eternal life.  Now this is the confidence we have before Him, we know that whenever we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.  And we know that if He hears whatever we ask, we have whatever we have asked Him for.

Some days we wonder just what kind of life we have.  Things just don't seem all that great.  People don't seem to appreciate us.  Efforts seem to go unnoticed.  Health may be not as good as it was yesterday.  Pains, both physical and emotional, are more noticeable.  Some days, that little black cloud seems to hover right above our head no matter what we do.  God seems not to notice.  And we say, "so this is life?"

Now we can chastise ourselves over our bouts of self-pity (and we probably should), but unless you're a very unusual person, you will have these times, and thankfully they usually pass pretty quickly.  There are several things we need to remember during these times of questioning---

1.  We are blessed.  No matter what our current circumstances are, we have the blessing of Christ as our Savior.  I have learned to be content no matter what happens to me. I am content whether I am well fed or hungry. I am content whether I have more than enough or not enough. I can do everything by the power of Christ. He gives me strength. Philippians 4:11-13 

2.  God is with us at our mountaintops and He is with us in our valleys.  He is our constant companion and He cares.  Casting all your care upon Him, because He cares about you.  1 Peter 5:7

3.  "In Christ, all our problems are temporary; all our blessings are eternal.  Don't give up.  There'll be joy in the morning."  David Jeremiah.  With Christ living within us we are empowered and we are reminded that He has brought to us the promise of eternal life.  A life that will be perfect in every way

David long ago had gone through one of "those" times...Psalm 13 expresses it very well, from the depths of his gut-wrenching blues back to the time of his ability to see God's blessing over his life:

 Lord, how long must I wait? Will you forget me forever? How long will you turn your face away from me? How long must I struggle with my thoughts? How long must my heart be sad day after day? How long will my enemies keep winning the battle over me? LORD my God, look at me and answer me. Give me new life, or I will die. Then my enemies will say, "We have beaten him." They will be filled with joy when I die. But I trust in your faithful love. My heart is filled with joy because you will save me.  I will sing to the Lord. He has been so good to me.

We can sing with David, "Lord, You have been so good to me."  We can look up and we can know with certainty that we have been given new life, a life that surpasses everything we know now.  We can know that God loves us so absolutely that He gave His Son for us and that should fill us with joy.  We can know that God hears us and that He answers us.  We can know - we can know - we can know!

This life can be tough sometimes and we can get down.  Christians are not perpetual Snow White's with the bluebird of happiness constantly sitting on our shoulders.  But we need to remember that JOY is one element of the fruit of the Spirit, and if we find ourselves not exhibiting joy in our lives for a period of time, then it is time for some serious "heart checks" and see what we are missing so we can get back to a life that displays something more to those around us.

And, yes, it really was one of those days!