Saturday 21 August 2021

Cheer up, for God's sake!

 

I have met many Christians over the years whose faces look like a mile of bad road. They look down as if they have a permanent bad smell under their nose. They may look pious but they are as boring as a mouldy rice pudding.

I think they do God a disservice. God created us to be happy. To enjoy life not to endure it. Our faith is not an endurance test to be lived until death comes to the rescue.

When we look at the life of Jesus, He lived it helping others to a better life. He healed the sick. He spent personal time with each one of them and made them better. He didn't say, "Oh ... hard luck. Just try to endure your misery until death ends it all for you!"

He healed people. He raised them from the dead. He brought them back to life. To a new life. To be lived to the full.

He was raised from the dead to conquer death once and for all.

We need to remember that when we live our daily routine from day to day. Let us enjoy life as God willed it.

Sure, there will be bad times. Difficult times. Terrible times even. I've had my share of them. I am not going to pretend that I was the life and soul of the party when things were bad. Far from it. I was miserable, and my faith may have been shaken somewhat. 

But in time, the hurt ceased to hurt, not as much as before anyway. I tried to smile. Not for my sake. Not for the sake of my loved ones. But for God's sake. I told Him I shall smile and try to do better to honour His gift of life to us.

We may have good reasons to be miserable.

But we have better reasons to be happy.

29 comments:

  1. ...cheer up for the sake of everyone around you!

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  2. PREACH ON, Brother! as we would say in the deep South across the pond!
    Blessings, Victor!

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    1. Sometimes I feel as no one's listening.

      God bless, Lulu.

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  3. Who wouldn't rather spend their time with happy people (other than folks who are already miserable)?

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    1. Good point, Kathy. Misery seems to like company.

      God bless.

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  4. For God's sake, indeed! Time's a wasting!

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    1. Indeed, Mevely. Some Christians give Christianity a bad name.

      God bless you.

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  5. We do have better reasons to be happy, Victor. Christians should be the most joyful people on earth, so let's act like it!
    Blessings!

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    1. Yes, they should be the most joyful; yet many don't act like it at all.

      God bless, Martha.

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  6. A very good point. Thank you for this timely reminder, Victor.

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    1. It really is so nice to see you visiting here again Sandi. Thank you so much.

      God bless.

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    2. Sandi,

      I cannot comment on your Blog. Your website is blocking me.

      God bless.

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    3. What? Weird. There is no reason it should do that. I will check it out. I just posted something earlier today. I wonder if you can comment on that because it is new.

      Delete
  7. It takes less effort to smile than it takes to frown. It seems that misery creates more misery until we are overwhelmed by it. I very much agreed with this one, Victor - for God’s sake smile. Have a cheerful and blessed day.

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    1. I think people become miserable as a way of life. I don't mean people who have good reason to be sad because of illness, or other problems. I mean people in general.

      God bless you, Nells.

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  8. Dearest Victor,
    If we all start scaling down our lives, just looking at our many, many blessings and our personal wealth on possessions, friends, family we have no reason NOT to be happy!
    Nobody ever said that each day of life would be a party and always go smooth. But there are highlights and those are the ones to remember for when we hit a valley of life. That cheers us up and gives us motivation to move on.
    Hugs,
    Mariette

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  9. You are so right. God want us to be happy. I find being thankful makes you happy.

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    1. Indeed. We should count our blessings.

      God bless, Happyone.

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  10. I'm never miserable for long, some loud rock and roll music, maybe a bit of a cry, followed by a nap and I'm okay again. I've never understood people who are miserable all the time. Do they not look around and see the beauty everywhere?

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    1. There is beauty everywhere ... if we look.

      God bless, River.

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  11. One of the happiest verses of the Bible is John 16:33, where Jesus says, "In this world you will have trouble. But cheer up! I have overcome the world."

    We do have every reason to cheer up, or even smile through our tears.

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    1. It is called having Faith. To cheer up.

      God bless, Mimi.

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  12. Bingo! I may be Cranky, but I am still happy when no one is looking.

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    1. Happy on the inside !!! You often cheer me up, JoeH.

      God bless.

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  13. Such a good post and an excellent point.

    All the best Jan

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