Do you ever have days (and nights) that you can’t sleep or focus (more than usual) and all you feel is desperate? I do. I don’t always know why, so I pray “what is it God?” 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 tells us “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you”.  Sometimes I feel a specific person or circumstance that He presses on my heart to pray for and other times just….. desperation. I’ve been having a lot of this recently.

2015 was a year of ups and downs and 2016 is getting a good start to the same roller coaster. I have a couple kids getting married in the upcoming months and that makes me feel happy and I pray for them and I rejoice!

I have a grandmother dying of cancer and dear friend’s mother recently diagnosed with stage 4 cancer and this makes me sad and I pray for them ….and yet I feel the need to rejoice!

I watch the news and hear of the chaos in the world. The politics of the world consume every headline….. and I feel sad, disappointed, angry and I pray…. and rejoice!

Please don’t misunderstand. I don’t always rejoice right away, I usually let my flesh and emotion get to me before it occurs to me (or rather I stop and listen to the Holy Spirit within me) to rejoice. I desire to be better. Today I realized that this feeling of desperation is for my friends and family who don’t know Jesus! I feel the Holy Spirit telling me to pray for them. Talk to them, share His message. We are in desperate times (end times) and events seem to be speeding up. The bible is very clear of the Way to salvation, John 14:6 tells us, “Jesus said…I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me”. Many people claim His name and yet do not believe those words! I don’t believe there is a clearer way to say it. I understand the temptation to do things your own way, I’m selfish too.

To my “Christian” friends, family, and readers….. If you believe there are multiple ways to salvation/heaven let me just say to you that you are wrong. And I believe if you are honest with yourselves, you know you are…you just want to see a way to make sense of the world and your hurts. I hear ya, I really do. A song comes to mind that I only ever hear during the Christmas season and I wish it were played all year, all the time. It’s titled “Psalm 13” and it is in fact psalm 13. The song starts out with “How long oh Lord, will you forget me?” and the chorus speaks volumes of where a true Christians heart should be… “but I trust in your unfailing love, my heart will rejoice. still I sing of your unfailing love..You have been good. You will be good to me.”

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uusiWwIo-C4 (please copy and paste this link to hear the song )

To my non-Christian family, friends, and readers….. PLEASE consider how your eternity will play out. An excerpt from “The Knowledge of the Holy” by A.W.Tozer says it well… “We must all choose whether we will obey the gospel or turn away in unbelief and reject it’s authority. Our choice is our own, but the consequences of our choice have already been determined by the sovereign will of God, and from this there is no appeal.”. Whatever your choice, I still love you and so does God, but know this…. He is the perfect parent and follows through on His Word. He sacrificed His Son on the cross for your salvation. Although He loves you, He will not allow you to spend eternity with Him unless you accept and believe Him at His Word..That Jesus died and rose again proving He is who He says He is.

With a new year starting again, we look around and talk to our friends and family and everyone is talking about all the changes they want  to make which causes me to reflect on my own desires. Of course I still have the same goals of a healthy body, healthy relationships, a healthy emotional state of mind, etc… but don’t all these things begin with finding the good? 

So on my journey of focus I find myself being continually convicted to “Rejoice in the Lord always, Again I will say, rejoice!” (Philippians 4:4).  I have the choice to be healthy – praise God. I have the choice to forgive and encourage in my relationships – praise God. I have the ability to place all my sorrows at the foot of the cross – praise God. I rejoice in my own redemption. I rejoice in the salvation of loved ones. I rejoice in the Word of God. And I rejoice in the HOPE that we all have in Jesus!