Think Victory! Cheerful or Miserable?

CHEERFUL OR MISERABLE?

“A cheerful heart brings a smile to your face; a sad heart makes it hard to get through the day. A miserable heart means a miserable life; a cheerful heart fills the day with song.” (Proverbs 15:13, 15 from The Message)

You’ve met them, haven’t you? There are people who look at life with the glass half-empty. Everything is doom and gloom. They immediately see all the negative things about life. Then there are the people who see life with the glass half full. They can see the positive in just about any situation. Which do you like to be around.

I have a core group of staff that meet with me for prayer every morning. One morning I shared with them how depressing it was to meet with them. My personality is far different than theirs, which is not saying it is better than theirs. I would come in excited to face the new challenges of the day and they were either tired, sick, depressed, overwhelmed, and dreading the stuff they had to do. Instead of walking away from this time of prayer energized, it would suck the life out of me.

Miserable people do that – they can drain you and suck the life right out of you. Last week we served 1000 ladies for our Spring Ladies’ Day and we decided to cancel our daily fitness program activities for the seniors in the community who come to use our weight room, pool and gym. One of the men who didn’t see the many signs that had been posted for over a week canceling the program, showed up to swim and he was not a happy camper. In fact, he went off on everybody about how “Keswick is going to the dogs.” When I inquired about him, the team that serve there said, “That’s so-and-so. He’s never happy about anything.”

Several moments later the “herds” of women began to arrive and two ladies pushed their way to the front and demanded that I open the doors. We were planning to open the doors at 7:30 AM which was a half hour earlier than the published time to open them. For ten minutes they whined and complained to wear me out. Finally the one said, “Can you give me your name. I am going to report you to your supervisor.” I showed her my name badge, and calmly stood my ground. I walked through the Auditorium before the program started and these two complainers were on the front row. When they saw me – they came over and apologized profusely. “We opened the Keswick Today and there was your picture. We had no clue you were the President & CEO.” I cracked up!

Whining and complaining will set the whole tone of your day. As you evaluate your heart today are you a whiner? Complainer? Or does the radiance of Christ and what He has done for you permeate your life so that when people encounter you they say, “What’s up with him? How come you are always happy? How come you are always smiling?” Are you miserable or cheerful today? A man who THINKS VICTORY! will be a man filled with joy that is overflowing and joy that will be contagious.

Great Quote: “When your basic belief system about God and yourself is shaky, your day-to-day behavior system will be shaky. But when your belief system is intact and your relationship with God is based on truth, you’ll have very little trouble working out the practical aspects of daily Christianity. Show me someone who knows who they are in Christ and who is filled with the Holy Spirit, as is taught in the first half of the Epistles, and I will show you someone who will instinctively live according to the second half of the Epistles. It will be the ‘natural’ thing to do.” Neil T. Anderson