Joy Is Coming In The Morning

 It is on our failures that we base a new and different and better success.

    -Havelock Ellis

I once heard it preached that blessings are like coins which you find on the ground. When you pick up the coins you put in in your pocket and as you continue to receive blessings (coins) and put them in your pocket you soon will have a considerable amount. Later, (at some point in your life), when you are in need you can put your hand into the pocket containing the coins, (blessings), jiggle them around and you will be reminded that you have seen hard times before, that you have known of the supernatural and sufficient ways of God and you will be revived. 

 

I was in church on Easter Sunday. I was actually wanting to relax from my recent road trip which I had returned from on Saturday afternoon, but I needed to get out because I was feeling a bit anxious. The church contained a very nice congregation and they made me feel very welcome. During the sermon the minister paused for an opportunity to allow the members to audibly submit prayer requests. One by one, the congregation began to utter their prayer requests for:

•  A neighbor with cancer
•  The man down the street with no legs
• A friend preparing for surgery
•  A family who had just lost a loved one
•  Another prayer for someone with cancer
• A young man who was leaving that very afternoon for military service

  I sat there and listened intently to the requests as the were spoken all around me. I felt nearly embarrassed because when the minister initially asked for the prayer requests I immediately thought about myself and my own plight(s) I was currently experiencing.  The more the parishioners spoke their requests the less inclined I was willing to submit my own. Here I sat thinking of "poor me" and my woes and here these people were requesting God's favor for friends, neighbors, and utter strangers. I had to admit to myself that I was somewhat ashamed; and rightfully so. God has always brought me out of darkness into light; from hunger to fullness, from sickness to health, from pain and sorrow to life and love. In a flash of thought I was reminded of how I had been in hard places before. I was feeling hurt and abandoned with no hope,( just as I had felt when I had been in a fix at other times), but then I remembered that my present conundrum was merely an opportunity to shift into another gear; to seek another level in life, because we often become complacent in our present state as if their is nothing else to attain.

  I bowed and prayed along with the congregation and openly sought God's help for the requests of the people. Inwardly, I was at peace and had been given a second wind from above.   My prayers are going forth for my friends and neighbors, seen and unseen, that the good and perfect will of the Lord be done in your lives.  We must learn to rejoice before we see the sun.

I love you all.

Dennis