Be Joyful No Matter What!

We have been looking at things that can cause us to be paralyzed. Someone who is physically paralyzed cannot do anything. Someone who is spiritually paralyzed can’t do anything either. Oh they may look good on the outside, but they are paralyzed, not able to move spiritually! Stuck! Have you ever been stuck spiritually? This causes us to also be stick mentally. We think negative all the time because we feel there is no hope of anything good coming our way! We are paralyzed and many times wit doesn’t look like there is any way out of it!

Habakkuk 3:16–19 NIV

16 I heard and my heart pounded, my lips quivered at the sound; decay crept into my bones, and my legs trembled. Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity to come on the nation invading us. 17 Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, 18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. 19 The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights. For the director of music. On my stringed instruments.

Fear Is the First Emotion We Experience When a Bad Report Comes!

Verse 16 says, “I heard and my heart pounded, my lips quivered at the sound; decay crept into my bones and my legs trembled.”

Habakkuk heard what was happening and immediately he was paralyzed! Did that ever happen to you? You hear bad news and fear comes and there is nothing you can do about it! That is why it’s not always good to know everything the news has to report. For that matter, it’s not good to listen to what he said she said. I don’t know if this has happened to you but it has to me. I want to know everything that is going on! When I get in that mood, I start fearing that nothing is going to change and everything is as uphill battle. Can anyone relate?

More Bad News Can Cause Hopelessness!

“Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food. though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls”

This is a hopeless situation! Think about, this is what is happening right now in the world. It’s getting worse day by day. People are in hopeless situations all around us. Many are not able to make ends meet. They work hard and nothing is happening.

As we look at what Habakkuk describes here what we see. No figs means there is no food supply. No grapes means there is nothing to drink and there is no new wine. Olive oil was super important as it was not only used for cooking like we use it but it provided light in olive burning lamps. No crops being produced. No sheep to provide wool for clothing. No cattle to provide for them. It was hopeless. So what do we do in a hopeless situation to prevent us from becoming paralyzed?

Joy is the Key!

“ Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior”

Something special happens when we look to God in desperate, paralyzing times. Instead of becoming paralyzed, we are able to see above the circumstances. Whether we are depressed or full of joy doesn’t necessarily change what we are going through but it does change our outlook! We begin to see possibilities instead of being paralyzed. We see that these things are all subject to change.

Bottom Line is God’s Got This!

“The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights”

When we have the joy of the Lord, we find His strength.

Nehemiah 8:10 NKJV

10 Then he said to them, “Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

God’s joy is our strength no matter how weak the circumstance may make us feel!

Hebrews 12:1–2 TPT

1 As for us, we have all of these great witnesses who encircle us like clouds. So we must let go of every wound that has pierced us and the sin we so easily fall into. Then we will be able to run life’s marathon race with passion and determination, for the path has been already marked out before us. 2 We look away from the natural realm and we fasten our gaze onto Jesus who birthed faith within us and who leads us forward into faith’s perfection. His example is this: Because his heart was focused on the joy of knowing that you would be his, he endured the agony of the cross and conquered its humiliation, and now sits exalted at the right hand of the throne of God!

When Jesus faced a hopeless situation in the natural, He focused on the Father and on the joy that His Father’s plan would bring!

Whenever situations come, and they will come, that can paralyze us, remember to look to God and rejoice in the fact that God is always there for us!

His strength will bring us through all the time!