November 13, 2017 - Use It or Lose It!

Have you ever felt like quitting? When the game is not going right, our default mode is to take your ball and go home…

Life tends to bring us to points of decision… where we must determine if we are going to stay the course or if we are going to pack it in… if we are going to stick with the game plan or give up.

If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small. (Proverbs 24:10)

The past couple of weeks I have been reminding students at our school that we are called to rejoice and be thankful in all things. In fact, today I showed them in 1 Thessalonians 5 where it is the will of God that we do that… (it is great to show seniors in high school that they can know God’s will clearly!)

I came across an incredible passage today… it is Psalm 137. The Psalmist is writing from captivity in Babylon. The writer admits that their joy had left them… admits that they no longer had a “song.” (Check out verse 2 where he states, “We hung our harps upon the willows in the midst of it.” They stopped playing their music.)

In verse 4 the question becomes, “How?” He asks, “How can we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?”

How do we rejoice? How do we show thanksgiving if the world seems to be falling apart around us?

Verses 5 and 6 give a warning and an answer… if “we forget… Jerusalem (the good)” we could lose our skill and our ability to praise. (A use it or lose it scenario.)

If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill! If I do not remember you, let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth – if I do not exalt Jerusalem above my chief joy. (Proverbs 137:5-6)

So the positive answer is to remember the good… or in the words of the great old hymn… to “count your blessings, name them one by one, count your blessings see what God has done..”

Don’t quit… don’t take your ball and go home… persevere by remembering the good!