The Joy of Losing Keys
From Good to Bad, Real Quick
Being a Christian can be difficult sometimes, can’t it? So many circumstances determine our actions and reactions, and sometimes we allow our emotions to get the best of us.
This can even happen as soon as we finish our daily devotional with the Lord.
The events of this morning will provide a great example. The day started off great. I woke up early, exercised, spent time with the Lord, and made breakfast for the family. I was feeling energized physically and spiritually, and was excited to tackle the day. However, the day did not continue as I had hoped. When I sat down at the breakfast table to eat and have family devotion, I remembered that the cars were frozen from the cold weather. In an effort to continue the day in stride, my plan was to run outside to turn on the vehicles so they would be thawed by the time I needed to leave for work and my wife needed to take the kids into town.
Unfortunately, that’s not what happened.
I lost my keys.
Well, technically, I lost the keys to my wife’s car. I had mine. So for the next several minutes, my wife and I tore up the house looking for keys and came up empty handed. At this point, I am late for work, my wife isn’t able to run her errands, our family devotion is not getting done, the kids are throwing food, and my wife and I are frustrated with each other.
I headed to work feeling defeated.
It happened that fast. I went from being physically and spiritually energized with optimism for the day, to being upset, frustrated and unsure about how the rest of the day would unfold. Not to mention, it was only 7:45 am. In the blink of an eye, I allowed my emotions to get the best of me rather than living out the truths I had read in Scripture just an hour before.
How do we respond in moments like these? You know, when life gets you down and you still have a lot of day left. How do we lift ourselves out of the hole we dug for ourselves?
Rejoice
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Philippians 4:4
This is a verse that my wife and I have been trying teach our children for a while now. It is short, sweet, and to the point. It is a verse that I find especially helpful in moments like the one I was telling you about. Often, Satan will use these types of situations against us in an attempt to strip us of our joy and to take our focus off the Lord. If we reflect on ourselves and our circumstances too much, this will be the case. We will not be people of joy.
In this text, Paul is encouraging the Phillippian church to be joyful. Not merely to display some sort of happiness and positivity, but to display the joy that we have in Christ. The joy that we display tells others of God’s goodness and affirms where our trust lies (Psalm 56:10-11).
Notice also that Paul does not tell us to be joyful only when it is convenient. He says, “Rejoice in the Lord always.” Joy is one of the marks of a regenerate person. Joy is not something we possess, it is something we are. We are to always be joyful because we are Christians.
So when moments of despair attack us, we must ask ourselves a few questions.
Are we preaching the Gospel to ourselves?
Are we engaged in unrepentant sin? If so, what is holding us back from repentance?
Are we depending on our own efforts as our source of joy, or are we genuinely looking to Jesus as the one who supplies all of our needs?
Let us be sure to find our joy in Christ alone.
