Daily Devotional – 4/16/12 “Sad but not sick!”

What’s wrong, honey? You got a frown on your face, what’s hurting you? You’re sad, are you sick? No, then what’s with the face? Oh, is it because the world has beaten you down, folks are talking about you, you don’t have dependable friends, you don’t have money to go clubbing or drinking all weekend or your car won’t start? But you do know that these things are just temporary, right? Then why is it so easy for you to lose, no, why is it so easy for you to give your joy away? You do know the enemy only has the power and folks can only talk about the information you give them, right? How’d they know you went partying Friday and Saturday night if you didn’t post it on Facebook? How do they know your baby daddy is a liar and cheater if you didn’t tweet about it? How could they possibly know your lights got cut off if you didn’t run your mouth so much? Yea, it’s alright to vent to folks sometime but that doesn’t mean you have to spread your business like True Green spreading grass seeds. See, there are folks in the world that rejoices in your misery because they are miserable and misery loves company. They hate on you when you’re doing good but they are ready to cry with you when you’re down and out and you haven’t even realized it yet. One sure way to know if the folks that are around you are for you be happy. If they are around you in your happiness with the sass in their voice, saying stuff like, “Girl, why he buy you flowers, he must be in the dog house?” or will only go out with you if you’re paying; they aren’t for you. But, if they can honestly celebrate your happiness with you, encourage you to stay happy and are even happier for you; then they are for you. You’ve got to stop letting the fun snatchers into your circle because not only will they snatch the fun but they’ll also snatch the joy and once they’ve snatched your joy they’ve taken your God away because to have God is to have joy, you see.

Yea, see Nehemiah 2:2 says, “The king asked me, “Why do you look so sad? You aren’t sick, are you? You must be troubled about something.” Now, this scripture was the king talking to Nehemiah but it can also be applied here because God has to ask us on a daily basis, “Why are you sad,” when you have no reason to be. He’s asking, didn’t I wake you up in your right mind, didn’t I give you a fresh anointing on this morning, didn’t I come to your rescue when you called me, didn’t I show up in the hospital room, court room or on your job when you needed me there, didn’t I make ends meet when you couldn’t see the way how to, didn’t I satisfy your hunger even though you never took a bite of food, didn’t I dry your tears although you never saw my hand, didn’t I heal your broken hurt without cutting open your chest, didn’t I turn you around when you were heading down the wrong path, didn’t I stop you from being hit by that car and didn’t I do just what I said I would? Then why are you sad? Proverbs 15:13 says, “A happy heart makes the face cheerful, but heartache crushes the spirit.” You have to make your heart happy and once you complete this, happiness will show by the glide in your walk, it’ll show in the words that you talk, it show in the generous way you give and it’ll show by the Godly way you live. Yes, when you are happy the devil in hell flinches but God above rejoices. When you are happy, your enemy falls but God answers every call because it’s then that your prayers are getting through. Don’t allow folks, whether Christian or not, to steal your joy. After all they didn’t give it to you so stop giving it away for free.

Don’t get me wrong, just because I write this word every day it doesn’t mean I don’t need a reality check from time to time because I did this exact thing on yesterday, in church, believe it or not and it took my husband to point it out to me and once he did, I had to pray and ask for forgiveness. Why, because I was wrong. Even though things happened, I still shouldn’t have allowed it to put a frown on my face because after it’s all said and done God will fight my battles. See, we spend so much time fighting that we haven’t even stopped to realize the battles that were fighting so hard in isn’t even ours. No, we take on other folk’s issues and soon they are gone and we are still in the middle of somebody else’s mess. Isn’t that crazy? Take for an example, your daughter and this other young lady don’t like each other. They have words every day at school and on Facebook and you’ve had enough. Now you spend months sending emails and calling the school because you want something done when they’ve made up 2 weeks back. Teenagers will be teenagers and kids will be kids, so don’t get so caught up in fighting their battles (unless their safety is involved) when they don’t last past the school day. This is also true in grown folk battles. Stop trying to get your sister to leave her deadbeat husband because in the end, she has to make the decision and if you keep pushing, she’ll leave you before she leaves him. Let her fight her own battle. Stop trying to push your brother to get off those drugs because the harder you push him, the harder he’ll push the drugs in his veins. Let him decide when enough is enough because when he decides, he’ll leave them alone for good and not just to appease you.

It’s alright to have your moments but do so to yourself. Don’t allow yourself to be knocked down and then let the person who knocked you down to see you cry. Yea, you may have hurt me but I won’t give you the satisfaction of seeing me hurt. Yea, you may have broken my heart but I won’t wear it on my sleeves for you to continue to throw darts at. Yea, you may have wished death over my life but I won’t allow you to be happy by burying me. So, on today, take back your joy and your peace. Take back all those things you’ve given to the devil. No, the devil didn’t steal it because when folks steal, they usually break in to take it without your knowledge and seeing that the devil doesn’t possess legs and arms you had to bring him in and then give him whatever it is he has of yours, so take it back and do it NOW! You deserve to be happy and when you’re happy those around you are happy. Try smiling today, even through your hurt and pain and then look how much better you look. Then folks won’t look passed you because of your bad attitude but they’ll be looking at you to see the beautiful smile that you’ve hidden for so long. Yes, you do look better when you smile so be happy and let the world know it.