Many ask how can we live with confidence, with peace and joy in the midst of so much gloom all around.
“Listen to this,” hubby said the other night. He played a video that had gone viral on the internet.
A man gives detailed description of a minor car accident which took place right in front of him. A car clipped another in which there were four elderly ladies. With cigarette hanging from his mouth, arms in the air, and a furious look on his face, he dashes to the women’s car. The driver rolls her window down and proceeds to hit him on the head. Then the other three women jump out of the car and with purses and umbrellas, begin to strike the man again and again. He manages to get away and runs back to his car.
The details of this scenario aren’t funny. But one cannot help but laugh because the man describing the details has a laughter that is powerfully contagious.
He didn’t tell viewers to laugh. But his own laughter evokes the same reaction in others.
What if we do the same? Rather than telling others to be joyful, to have peace, and to live with confidence. Instead, we, ourselves, were to display them in such a contagious way others are infected with same?
Do you have such attributes in such a level? Here are a few questions for you to determine:
1. In the midst of distress, do you display unshakeable peace? Do other see this conviction in your attitude? “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)
2. When facing challenges, rather than frustration, do you display joy and delight in the Lord? Does your countenance reflect this truth? “Trouble and distress have come upon me, but your commands are my delight.” (Psalm 119:143)
3. When failures come, does your confidence wane? Or is it renewed by God’s promise: “I will bless the Lord who counsels me He gives me wisdom in the night. He tells me what to do. I am always thinking of the Lord; and because He is so near, I never need to stumble or to fall.” (Psalm 16: 7-8)
Father, with your help I will live a life that displays contagious joy, peace and confidence in you. I ask for wisdom to know how to react, what to display and how to act for others to see you through me. In Jesus’s name, amen.
• What do other see in you?
• How do you display the convictions you hold in your heart?
• Do you live with unshakeable peace, joy and confidence?
Janet Perez Eckles
