Don’t Worry, Be Happy A chill was permanently set in the air. A stench contaminated each breath taken. The echo of jangling chains drifted up the corridor as the passing guard occasionally blocked the meager light. Weary eyes strained to see the words that filled an empty parchment sprawled on the table as a letter of joy sprang from a gloomy dungeon (Phil. 4:4). Norman Vincent Peale’s message, so familiar to the twentieth century culture, was alive and well in that first century prison. The power of positive thinking sustained Paul, a prisoner, as he preached the joy of Christianity to the Philippians. He urged them to appreciate the natural joy Christ brings. Repeatedly in this small epistle the writer’s mind returns to the fount of joy to find its refreshing attributes. Joy does not deny the actual but accentuates the ultimate. It is not preoccupied with the negative but focuses on the positive. Paul’s joy came from a personal walk with Christ that could be confined to no cell (Phil. 1:21; 4:13). This was a joy no chain could bind and no court could suppress. It would be drowned by no adversity, crushed by no foe (Phil. 2:17; Col. 1:24). Joy is most obvious when threatened, the very time it is most often abandoned. Like a lifesaver, Paul pleads with us that we need it most when life’s storms rage about us. Cling to joy. Let us permeate your disposition. Embrace it as an attitude for living and it will hold you up as you float to the safety of God’s eternal shore. There can be no greater tragedy than to lose the joy of Christ in our life. There is no defeat so bitter as the victory of a negative mind. David Bragg
Posted on: Thu, 18 Jul 2013 20:24:17 +0000
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