Sirach 14:14 “Do not deprive yourself of a happy day; let not your share of desired good pass by you.” We have all spent too many days suck in the past or worrying about the future. Today is the day to stop and learn to enjoy the moment you are in. Today is the day you let yourself be Happy and not let your share of good pass you by! Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Don’t Deprive Yourself of a Happy Day!
Sirach 14:14 “Do not deprive yourself of a happy day; let not your share of desired good pass by you.”
I was surprised at hearing this phrase in the Bible. There are a lot of places in the Bible where it talks about sacrifices and fasting and doing without things. It was nice to hear this verse. Do not deprive yourself of a happy day. This is something more and more of us are doing these days. We are spending too much time either living in the past or worrying about the future. I heard a really great sermon on the Elevation podcast last week called “Remember Lot’s Wife,” by Christine Caine. If you have time you I recommend listening to it. So much wisdom in all she said. One of her main points, I believe she had several, was to not get stuck in the past. One of the scripture verses she mentioned was Luke 17:32. It is a very short passage with just three words. “Remember Lot’s wife.”
This verse comes in the middle of the section called Coming of the Kingdom. Jesus is telling his disciples what will happen when the Kingdom of God comes. Then in the middle of this explanation He says, “Remember Lot’s wife.” Something I learned from this sermon is that there are 170 woman mentioned in the Bible. Some woman even have their own book of the Bible, like Ruth and Esther. However, when Jesus is talking about the end of days, He tells us to remember Lot’s wife. What do we know about Lot’s wife? The only thing I know about Lot’s wife, the only thing the Bible tells us, is that when Lot’s family was leaving Sodom, before sulfur and fire rained down to destroy the city, his family was told not to look back. Lot’s wife looked back and she was instantly turned into a pillar of salt.
Why would it be important to remember Lot’s wife? Lot’s wife was so caught up in what she was leaving behind, that she missed where she was going? I totally get this. They had to leave everything behind, they had to leave their house, their friends, any other family besides their immediate family. It was a lot they had to leave behind. It was also a much better life where they were going. The town they lived in was full of people doing awful things. And also, that town was about to be destroyed. If she stayed their she would have died. She knew this and yet she still couldn’t help and turn back to look. She was too stuck in what she was leaving and it ruined the amazing future she could have had. Is this happening to you?
Are you stuck looking back? Are you so caught up in what happened in the past, what you gave up, what you lost, that you can’t seem to step forward towards your future? I am not minimizing what you may have lost. Some people have lost a lot and that is hard. I have a friend who lost her mom, who was her best friend this year. I just went to a funeral on Friday for another family who lost their mom. Loss is real and it is painful. It takes time to learn to live with the feelings of loss. I understand this. I also know that family member you lost wouldn’t want you to stay it that grief and that pain. They would want you to get help to figure out how to move forward with the pain. Staying stuck in the past won’t get you anywhere.
Also, some of you may have had past relationships that haven’t worked out and so you are scared to move forward with a new relationship. This is normal. New is hard and uncertain. It is ok to be cautious. It’s ok to take your time. Just don’t get too caught up in looking backwards that you miss the amazing future you could be walking towards. Whatever it is you are focusing on in your past, ask yourself, “Is this holding me back from an amazing future?” If the answer is yes, figure out what you need to do to let go of it. That might be different for each one of us. Maybe that means attending a grief share group, maybe that means seeing a counselor, maybe that means saying goodbye to a bad relationship. Whatever it is, you are strong enough to do it. You can do hard things!
The other way we deprive ourselves of a bad day is we worry about the future. We have conversations in our head about what we will say if this happens or that happens, even though those things almost never happen. We worry about how we will deal with a thousand different scenarios when they occur and most of them never occur. I am not saying we shouldn’t plan ahead. I think we should do our best to plan ahead in most circumstances. However, I don’t think we should worry about everything that might go wrong. We will never be able to plan for every single thing that may happen. There will always be some level of faith or trust that things will work out. And if something happens, we will have plenty of time to worry then. We don’t need to ruin this day worrying bout what might happen on another day. There is a saying that speaks the truth about worry and I just love it as it is a great reminder. “Worrying doesn’t take away tomorrows problems, it just takes away today’s peace.”
No matter how much you worry about tomorrow’s potential problems, it won’t make your problems go away. However, it will make it impossible to enjoy the day you are living right now. There is so much wisdom in the verse above. “Do not deprive yourself of a happy day; let not your share of desired good pass by you.” How many days have we deprived ourselves of a happy day because we were either stuck in the past or worried about the future? How many more days are we going to deprive ourselves of happiness? I love how the second half of the verse says, “let not your share of desired good pass you by.” Do you even know how much good you might be missing out on by depriving yourself of good days?
Some of us may need time and we may need someone to help with that grief or that trauma. Some of us may need to accept that the past has happened and although we can’t change it, we can learn from it and move forward. We can make a decision to stop letting the past ruin our today. We can also make a decision to not let the unknown of the future ruin our today. We can make a decision to enjoy today, live in today and deal with the unknown things when they become known. The Bible is constantly telling us not to worry. Now we have a verse telling us to not deprive ourselves of a good day, and to not miss out on the good things in life. How many more times and in how many more different ways do we need the Lord to tell us not to worry, not to focus on the past, and to just live in the moment, before we actually listen? What if we heard Him today? What if we choose today to make the decision to have a happy day today, and then tomorrow and then the next day?
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, we want to have a happy day, please help us. We want to stop worrying about the future, it’s just so hard, this world is so uncertain. Please show us how to stop worrying. Lord, we don’t want to be stuck in the past. We want to let the past go, we want to move forward, please help us. Help us to turn our eyes towards you and to know that you will help us be at peace with our past and you will be with us as we step into the future. We trust you Lord, we know you are always with us. Help us trust you more. We love you Lord, you are so amazing. You are the almighty one and we are so grateful for all you do. We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I have an exciting announcement. My book will be coming out on Amazon very soon! Here is the description I have about the book. “Have you ever wished you could have the kind of trust Daniel had in the Lion's Den or Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego had in the fiery furnace? Have you ever wished you could trust God this deeply when you were in the middle of a storm or when your faith was being tested? Do you long for a deeper intimacy with your heavenly Father? If so, this book is your answer! In this book, I have outlined 15 different ways in which I deepened my faith in the Lord. I have come to know the Lord so intimately, and I know He will take care of everything. I have had some pretty big things happen over the years and yet I knew with ever fiber of my being, God was there for me and He would be my guide. My trust in the Lord runs deep and it didn't just happen. I worked hard to learn to trust God with such conviction. The good news is if I can do it, so can you! There is something in this book for everyone. With 15 different ways to grow closer to God, you are sure to find some that are perfect for you. If you want to trust the Lord more, if you want to have a more intimate relationship with God, get this book. You will not be disappointed!” I will let you know when it is available on Amazon. I am excited to get to share this book with you! I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow. Have a blessed day!