Choose Joy!

Rejoicing in the Lord must be your strength!" Nehemiah 8:10

I don't know who said this, but my husband always quotes: “Pain is inevitable, misery optional. Choose JOY!"

Sometimes it is VERY difficult to choose joy. When my sister Peggy's husband Jing

was diagnosed with malignant melanoma,

that was a very challenging time. Three years after, when Jing passed away, she was standing on God's promise in Habakkuk 3:17-19: “Yet will I rejoice in the Lord and exult in my saving God. God the Lord is my strength; He makes my feet swift as those of hinds and enables me to go upon the heights." Read her story here: https://peggyapl.blogspot.com/2010/05/though-i-walk-through-valley-of-shadow.html?m=1

and know that nothing is impossible with God when we rejoice! 

Even when it is sooo difficult to rejoice, to be filled with praise, to thank God for something not yet given, Ann Voskamp says that “Thanksgiving precedes the miracle." Thanksgiving and praise releases fruitfulness and breakthroughs.

In 2 Chronicles 20, there is a story about how Israel was going to fight against the huge army of their enemies. What did they do? The King appointed singers to sing to the Lord and praise Him! (2 Chro 20:21) Then God set ambushes against their enemies. You may say that's an Old Testament story, but when there was a problem I could not resolve, I marched around our store like the Israelites at Jericho (Joshua 6), seven times in obedience to God, and our problem was solved! The battle is not ours but God's! Let us determine to CHOOSE joy!