Do More of What Makes You...

"When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider: God has made the one as well as the other." -Ecclesiastes 7:14

This verse has been on my mind a lot recently. I personally believe that happiness is a manifestation of our circumstances and how we handle them. Romans 8:28 says, "we know that all things work together for the good of those who love Him and have been called according to His purpose." It is in this verse that we find that all things, both good and bad, are precious moments of life given to us from our Creator. We live a life that is not our own and every moment we borrow is one we will never get back once it has passed. Undoubtedly, we will have days that just suck. Where nothing goes right and it seems like you are taking on the whole world alone. It is in these moments that I believe that the presence of our Creator is undeniable. He gives us hard times to strengthen our faith and so that we know the good times when we see them. And even in the darkest of days, there is a possibility of the creation of a small ray of sunshine in every situation.  It is in these moments that we must seize happiness in whatever way, shape, or form it may manifest itself as. 

Unfortunately, I just wrote this whole paragraph on happiness and now I am going to shoot it to the ground in a sense.  The truth of the matter is that happiness is not our ultimate goal in life. I read a post on pinterest recently that summed up all of this...It had originally said "Do more of what makes you happy," but happy was scratched out and overwritten with "holy." Do more of what makes you holy. It is not about our happiness. No matter what, happiness will come and go, but joy, righteousness, and holiness should be ever present in our lives through the Holy Spirit. 


I challenge you to live a life of holiness. If you can manage that, I think the happiness will undoubtedly follow. 


Holiness>Happiness

Lay 'em Down

♪Come down to the river; come and let yourself in. Make good on a promise to never hurt again. If you're lost and lonely, you're broken down, bring all of your troubles come lay 'em down. All you sinners and the weak at heart all you helpless on the boulevards, wherever you are now whatever evil you've found, bring all of your troubles and come lay 'em down♫ -Needtobreathe "Lay 'Em Down"

So this song has been stuck in my head literally ALL week! I'm thinking that this will be a short blog because I wanted to blog about this song, but I think it is so self-explanatory. Basically, "bring all of your troubles, come lay em down." Give your problems over to God, lay em down and let them go. There is a certain amount of relaxation that comes with this song; it tails on the idea that we can be guilt free, fearless, and live our lives abundantly (Jn. 10:10) if we are willing to sacrifice the things of this world that hold us back. Our sin is the root of all of these feelings and, although reveling in sin can be very fun, it is not worth the after-effects. The hope we find when we lay down the things that hold us back is exponentially greater than any fun we had previously found in the sin.

I honestly do not think that you could pick a better song to start every day off with. I challenge you to remember this song when you are stressed, when you are happy, when you are feeling any sort of doubt, remember that the feet of Jesus are readily available to receive any and all of your trouble, but you have to let go of them first.