It's been a slow day at work (I love days like this! It's a great start to the weekend.), so I've been blog surfing. I came across a series on Girltalk. It's under the heading "PMS and Menopause", but the truths can be applied to everyday life. I especially like the quote they quoted by Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones in one of their blogs:
"This bit of advice from D. Martyn Lloyd Jones has helped to break that unhappy cycle: “There is all the difference in the world between rejoicing and feeling happy. The Scripture tells us that we should always rejoice [Phil. 4:4]....To rejoice is a command, yes, but there is all the difference in the world between rejoicing and being happy. You cannot make yourself happy, but you can make yourself rejoice, in the sense that you will always rejoice in the Lord. Happiness is something within ourselves, rejoicing is ‘in the Lord.’ Take the fourth chapter of the Second Epistle to the Corinthians. There you will find that the great Apostle puts it all very plainly and clearly in that series of extraordinary contrasts which he makes: ‘We are troubled on every side (I don’t think he felt very happy at the moment) yet not distressed’, ‘we are perplexed (he wasn’t feeling happy at all at that point) but not in despair’, ‘persecuted but not forsaken’, ‘cast down, but not destroyed’--and so on. In other words the Apostle does not suggest a kind of happy person in a carnal sense, but he was still rejoicing.'
It encouraged me to think that just because we're disappointed or saddened about something, doesn't mean we're sinning. We can rejoicing in the Lord in the midst of tears... Read this quote from John Piper.
By the way, I'm a lot better after my melt down the other day, so don't worry. God is working on my heart, drawing me closer to Him, and refining me. Praise the Lord!
