On the road to recovery !

Friday July 2, 2021

On the road to recovery !

Psalms 30.11 - Thou hast turned my lamentations into joy ; thou hast loosed my sackcloth, and girded me with joy.

Most recently, I shared with you that there are ways of the cross in our lives and I invited you to persevere because at the end of this road is victory. Today I would like to talk with you about this journey to victory which, let us not forget, has already been achieved at Golgotha. If there are valleys, there are also peaks.

On this path of healing, the Lord also gives us to take back what the enemy has stolen from us in the valley, even if this path is more or less long. However, I believe that there are some things that the Lord wants us to take back as quickly as possible because otherwise we are weakened. In these things, I will speak today only of joy.

The enemy of our souls knows that joy, which is part of our heritage and our salvation, is a strength for each of us. That’s why he tirelessly tries to take it away from us. Oh how I love our verse of the day. During this ascent of the Stations of the Cross, this weight on our shoulders is loosened and we are girded with joy. Yet often we continue to walk with our heads bowed, still carrying a load that has yet been taken away by the Lord : we remain in sorrow.

David says in another psalm : “I will make You the subject of my joy and my joy, I will sing Your name, God most high !” (Psalms 9.2). If joy can come to our hearts following good news, a good shared moment... it remains fleeting and David understood it. He says "I will make you", yes I will make the Lord, the One in whom there is not the shadow of a variation (James 1:17), yes "I will make you the subject of my joy, I will sing Your name". He also tells us : "There are abundant joys before Your face" (Psalm 16:11). He also said : “When we turn our eyes to Him, we are radiant with joy” (Psalms 34.5).

As I told you before, the enemy cannot stand that we have joy because he knows that it is a force for our soul and for our body. Sometimes he will even make us believe that if we have joy, it is because we are not in God. We thus become austere Christians, believing to be more spiritual by having a "serious" attitude.

For others, just like David (ah I really love this character from the Bible), they have experienced failure, fall and their joy is gone. They humbled themselves at the feet of the Lord, but they did not regain their joy. David lived this and He said to God after recognizing his transgressions : "Bring to me gladness and joy, and the bones which you have broken will rejoice" (Psalm 51.8). He wanted to rediscover the joy of knowing how to love himself, he was chosen. He also said : "Give me back the joy of your salvation" (Psalms 51.12). Yes, he wanted to rediscover that joy which remains there anchored in a heart at peace with his Savior. And what did God do ? He gave her that joy back. To testify, David will say a little later in the psalm which follows : “I will always praise you because you have acted” (Psalms 52.9).

You who read me, don't be fooled anymore. From today turn your gaze to Him who triumphed. Triumphed over sin but also triumphed over our strongholds of thoughts. Now is the time to find or rediscover joy, not that which depends on your circumstances but the joy of being saved, the joy of belonging to Him and of serving Him. Now is the time to resume the path of praise, of adoration. Remember that Jesus received the anointing to give : an oil of joy instead of mourning, a garment of praise instead of a downcast spirit, so that you may be called terebinth (strong man or woman) of righteousness (of truth), a plantation of the Lord, to serve to his glory (Isaiah 61.3). Can't you feel it ? This oil is flowing right now.

With all my love.

Source (Ezekiel 37 Ministries)