Have you thought
about why you get angry, frustrated, discouraged or unhappy? It nearly always seems to be due to something
that has happened to you or someone who has irritated you. No matter how determined you are to be calm
and patient, your mood gets high-jacked at some point by an event or a
conversation that is too tough to handle.
Yet God never puts the cause of your mood swings into the hands of
circumstances or relationships. When
Ahab the King of Israel became depressed that Naboth would not sell his
vineyard to him, his wife Jezebel made the same mistake so many of us make. She asked her husband why he was so sullen
and Ahab told her the pitiful account of his failure to convince Naboth to let
him have his vineyard. Jezebel took
matters into her own hands and arranged the murder of Naboth so that Ahab could
buy it from his heirs. Of course this
got Ahab the vineyard but it did nothing to solve the problem with his mood
swings. The cause of Ahab's depression
was not Naboth but rather his own envy.
As long as Ahab wanted what was someone else's, he could not live in
peace. The beginning of sin was the
desire to have what did not belong to Adam and Eve. It is a universal plague. Rather than live within the grace of God and
trusting in His goodness, we fret over what we don't have. We aren't respected. We don't get the help we want. Our wishes are ignored. We aren't treated fairly. We have been offended. It all boils down to just this. We think we deserve better. After the great Apostle Paul begged God to
relieve him of his suffering, the Lord sternly but gently rebuked him. "My
grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."
(2 Corinthians 12:9 NIV) When Peter
wondered what John's fate would be after the Lord told Peter that he would
suffer a terrifying and difficult death, the Lord put an end to that line of
questioning. "If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to
you? You must follow me." (John 21:22 NIV) When Christ begins to satisfy your soul from
top to bottom, you will find yourself at peace in any circumstance and with
whatever you have or don't have. Until
you settle matters with the Lord and decide that the salvation of God is good
enough to make your life right, you will continue to ride the stormy swells of
envy and dissatisfaction.
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love
endures forever. 1 Chronicles
16:34 NIV
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