How About a Little Joy in Your Life?

Here is a radical thought to start off your weekend.  What if joy is not the result of overcoming our sexual brokenness?  What if it is not what is waiting for us at the end of our addiction like a trophy handed out to the victor?  What if it is not what is given to us once we break free …

BUT IS WHAT IT NEEDED TO BREAK FREE??? 

What if it is not the reward but the antidote?

Remember Paul and Silas who were stripped and “severely flogged”.  They are thrown into prison and fastened into the stocks.  If that were me I would probably be really angry.  I would be feeling sorry for myself and asking God where He is and how could he let that happen.  I would be licking my wounds and trying to figure out why God wasn’t there for me.

So, we are in the prison of our addiction.  We try our hardest and do not get out.  We long for freedom and promise God if He will help us get out we will praise Him and do whatever He wants.

If we are not willing to do whatever He wants us to do while we are held in the bondage of our addiction, what makes us think we will do whatever He wants if we get free?  My experience has been that the heart to obey Him is forged in the depths of adversity, not in the life of comfort and success.

Paul and Silas – beaten, imprisoned locked in stocks at midnight are singing and praying.  I wonder what they were singing?

“At least we’re not dead …

At least we’re not dead –

Praise God we are not dead?”

(a little chorus they might have made up)

Then Paul says;

“Hey Silas, you know what I am thankful for?  They only punched me in one eye and that was already my bad eye and I can see pretty well out of the other.”

Silas replies –

“Yeah – you think you’ve got it good? I have gout in my right foot and that is the one they smashed – so I still have one good foot.”  Let’s sing another chorus of “At Least We are Not Dead.”

What if joy is the antidote and not the prize?  What if it is joy that gets us there and not what we get at the finish line?

“This is the Day the Lord has made – I will rejoice and be glad in it.”    Ps 118:24

 

I have learned that if I am thankful in the darkest of times it will help me move forward out of my addiction.  I am not thankful for the sexual things that I chose to do, but I am thankful that God exposed the truth about my secret life and has used it for good

  • in my life,
  • in my family,
  • in the 6 churches with 180 programs with about 150 men in them and their families
  • in the lives of the 1871 people who will be getting this email/podcast in 51 nations
  • in the lives of the women who are starting our first 180 Online Support Team for women tonight!

What about you? Can you find things to thank God for instead of complaining about or grieve over?  Making a choice of your will that in spite of what you are feeling you choose to give thanksgiving and glory to God.

 

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *