Written by Sabrina Nino de Campos, Portuguese Team Leader for Iron Rose Sister Ministries in Gainsville, Texas
I remember that while I was continuing through my annual Bible reading, during one of the hardest times in my life, I ended up reading the Psalms. And I remember that on one of those nights, when I felt so weak and ready to give up, I read a verse that said:
By day the Lord directs his love, at night his song is with me – a prayer to the God of my life. (Psalm 42:8, NIV)
The Psalms are so powerful and full of authentic human feelings. Not all of them are happy, sometimes they are feelings of pain, sometimes anger, sometimes indignation against God Himself and even sorrow stemming from feeling that Yahweh has forgotten about them.
Are negative feelings a bad thing? Do those feelings prevent us from feeling joyful? Feeling joyful does not depend on whether the situations in life are perfect.
The word Shalom comes from the Hebrew for wellbeing. The Hebrew people asked, “How is your Shalom?” And that involved a lot of aspects of life. How are your sheep? How is your crop? How is your family? The idea of Shalom meant harmony, wholeness, peace, flourishing. When all areas of life were perfectly in spring.
A lot of times in life, we don’t feel like everything is in perfect harmony. We go through pain that makes us want to give up and takes our strength away—just like a lot of Psalmists, and even Jesus Himself, felt at times. But what redefines our joy and restores our Shalom is Yahweh.
We won’t be happy all the time, but we will always be joyful in Him. Like the Psalmists and Jesus, we don’t have to hide our pain or sadness, but we can put everything we feel in His hands and rest under His wings. Our Shalom, our peace, comes from Him, who makes us complete. Not because everything is perfect and peaceful, but because He is perfect, and He is our peace. He becomes our Shalom, the only way to be complete and joyful.
If we redefine our prayer and redefine our priorities, our joy will also be redefined!
If we make it our prayer that by day the Lord directs His love to us and by night His song is with us, we can receive Shalom and Joy that exceed our understanding.
What attitudes or actions in your life need to be redefined so that your Joy can depend on the Lord and not on you?