KEEP ON BEING FILLED
Psalm 48:10, "According to thy name, O God, so is thy praise unto the ends of the earth: thy right hand is full of righteousness.”
We continue to discover how much God wants our lives to be filled. He is not a half-filled God but a God of fullness. He wants us to be the same.
GOD WANTS US TO BE FILLED WITH PRAISE
Psalm 71:8 says, “Let my mouth be filled with thy praise and with thy honor all the day.” Remember we are talking about the word filled. It is not enough to praise the Lord now and then when things are going great. Praise should fill our mouths so that it spills over in every circumstance. Even the frustrating ones!
I was recently reading a book about a missionary in Belize. Someone who was mad at her came and destroyed her beautiful flower beds—they ripped out all the plants, broke the rose bushes and threw them on the path. When she found this mess, instead of getting mad, she started saying, “Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord…”
“What are you doing?” a friend asked. She explained that she had read about saying “Praise the Lord” ten times before you say anything else when something traumatic happens or upsets you.
“Does it help?” the friend asked.
“At least it gives me time to reflect that for some reason God allowed this to happen to me,” She replied.
This might be something you could try too.
GOD WANTS US TO BE FILLED WITH LAUGHTER
Job 8:20-21 says, “Behold, God will not cast away a perfect man, neither will he help the evil doers: Till he fill thy mouth with laughing, and thy lips with rejoicing.” (Psalm 126:1-2)
We’ve all heard the phrase, “Laughter is the best medicine.” It is not an old wives’ tale. It is proved medically. Laughing protects the heart, relaxes the body, relieves stress, releases endorphins and boosts the immune system which improves resistance to disease. It sounds like we could do with a dose of laughing, doesn’t it? My mother told me about a man she read about who was diagnosed with cancer. He decided that if he only had three weeks to live, he might as well make them happy. He asked people to find all the funny movies they could find. He laughed so much that he laughed himself back to health!
Sometimes life is so challenging that it is hard to find something to laugh about, isn’t it? But we need to look for it. Laugh at everything you can. Laugh when the children do funny things even when it messes the house. Most of all, laugh at yourself. When you hear laughter, join in. Laughing is contagious—more than coughs, colds and ‘flu’s. I remember reading a book on the plane between Los Angeles and New Zealand. Some incidents were so funny that I couldn’t stop laughing out loud. People around me started to laugh too, even though they didn’t know what I was laughing about.
We know the adage, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away” but recently I read that “A laugh a day will keep the heart attack away.” This sounds rather radical but my brother often says that people could get more refreshed laughing at some funny stories at church than listening to another sermon!
Start with smiling. Smiling is the prerequisite to laughter. The more you smile, just for the fun of smiling, the more apt you will be to laugh. Smile at your husband, smile at your children, smile at the joy of being a mother in your home, smile at the birds and butterflies flying by and smile because you are alive. The smile is the first thing we look for in our newborn baby—and then to hear their belly laugh. It fills the whole house with laughter.
Let’s be filled with smiles and laughter. Let laughter ring throughout every room of your home.
There’s still more to come.
Love from NANCY CAMPBELL
PRAYER:
“Fill Thou my life, O Lord my God,
In every part with praise,
That my whole being may proclaim
Thy being and Thy ways.”
AFFIRMATION:
I am choosing to praise instead of grumble!
BOOK MENTIONED:
Miss Nancy by Harvey Yoder
Available from Christian Aid Ministries, Ph: 330-893-2428
HYMN: FILL THOU MY LIFE
Fill Thou my life, O Lord my God,
In every part with praise,
That my whole being may proclaim
Thy being and Thy ways.
Not for the lip of praise alone,
Nor e'en the praising heart,
I ask, but for a life made up
Of praise in every part:
Praise in the common things of life,
Its goings out and in;
Praise in each duty and each deed,
However small and mean.
Fill every part of me with praise;
Let all my being speak
Of Thee and of Thy love, O Lord,
Poor though I be and weak.
So shall no part of day or night
From sacredness be free,
But all my life, in every step,
Be fellowship with Thee.
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