A Good Bad Week

This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24

We've all had bad days. Sometimes they even stretch into bad weeks. I had one of those last week. It seemed that everywhere I went and every time I turned around there was something there to discourage me, or bad news of some sort waiting for me. I'll spare you the details, but suffice it to say that at times, it was enough that I felt like screaming.

I became discouraged early in the week, and as the week progressed, the discouragement deepened. By the end of the week, I was absolutely down in the dumps, and I felt like I was slipping into a depression. I hate to admit that I was there, but it's the truth. None of us wants to be there, and it's not what God wants for us, but when we get too focused on the problems that surround us, it's so easy to end up there.

To be honest, that's exactly what I was doing. The natural thing for the flesh was to focus on the bad things, because they were everywhere. As much as I hate to admit it, I put up little to no fight against that fleshly inclination, and the discouragement was the natural result. The longer I remained focused on those things, the worse it got.

Thankfully, God has a way of making us "snap out of it," if we'll allow Him to do so. I'm glad to say that God brought me to that point over the weekend. The process began Saturday night when I wrote my prior blog post. Writing something that reminded me of the forgiveness of God, and that would hopefully be an encouragement to someone else gave me something of a shot in the arm.

This morning's church service continued the process. My Sunday school teacher taught a wonderful lesson about Joseph's spirit during his Egyptian imprisonment. Even though he was being punished for something he was he was not guilty of, he kept a right spirit and attitude and served those around him. Joseph served the Lord faithfully and joyfully in the darkest days of his life.

During the song service, our choir sang a song called, "His Robes for Mine," which speaks about Jesus Christ's substitutionary death. It was a reminder that He became what I am (sin) so that I could become what He is (righteous). At the end of the song, I was in tears. I had to take a moment to regain my composure before I was able to lead the congregation in the final hymn of the service. Finally, just before the sermon, a friend of mine sang the song "Didn't I Walk on the Water," which is a reminder of the faithfulness and provision of God.

My pastor then stood up to preach and spoke on assurance of salvation from First John 5. It was a blessed reminder that God not only extends salvation to us, but also allows us to have assurance of it. If that isn't proof that He desires us to be joyful, I don't know what is.

All of that made me think about my week more deeply. Yes, a lot of things went wrong for me, and yes, it was a very difficult week, but is my life really that bad? No, it's not. I have friends and family who love me. I have the greatest church and pastor in the world (yes, I'm biased), and I get to direct the greatest choir in the world (yes, I'm biased again). To top it all off, I have a wonderful God and Saviour who loves me very much and gave His all for me. He has always been there for me, and I know He will never leave me nor forsake me. The more that I think about it, I had a good bad week.