Dropping Hints

So this morning I am reading in Joshua and this scripture just JUMPS off the page at me: Love the Lord and follow His plan for your lives.  Cling to Him and serve Him enthusiactically (Joshua 22:5).  I love the enthusiastically part.  It's my favorite. 

As I am getting ready in the mornings, I try to catch Joyce Meyer or Creflo Dollar or TD Jakes or John Hagee but this morning, I watched Jesse Duplantis.  Jesse isn't regularly on during the 6-7 am time frame so I normally catch one of the others.  I love Jesse Duplantis because he is a hoot when he brings The Word.  He makes it fun and interesting because God is fun and interesting.  I once heard him say to a group of preachers: don't give no boring blah blah blah sermon because people think God is a boring blah blah blah God.  So now I DVR all of Jesse's new sermons (I use his first name like we are on first name basis but he doesn't know me from Adam, or Adamette shall I say) (I guess I could stalk him down like I did Travis Cottrell at Deeper Still last December but I haven't been close enough to stalk him so that won't work I guess) (I need to quit typing what I'm thinking and putting them in parenthesis otherwise this entire blog will be one big parenthesis).  Anyway, I push play and guess what his sermon was on: SERVING GOD WITH ENTHUSIASM!!!  Are you thinking what I'm thinking?  Yep, God is dropping hints!!!

So many times we get beat up by this world and get "stuck" in our ministry.  And I have been vicitm to that from time to time and well as many others I serve alongside.  Anyway, I needed to be reminded of this today because my enthusiasm has been lacking the last couple months.  You know how you are on the mountaintop with God and then you start heading down the mountain and can feel yourself sliding faster and faster?  Well, that's been me.  But I am reminded in Joshua that I don't need to cling to the world and all it has to offer (or not offer), I must cling to the Lord!!!  I need to be following the plan He has for my life instead of listening to what the world is telling me I need to do. 

Today, I will begin focusing on His promises to and for me and what He has to offer.  By just focusing on those promises alone, I have begun to feel my enthusiasm rise.  So watch out world, I'm back!  I will leave you with the lyrics to Mandisa's (Never Gonna) Steal My Joy.  It's "my song" for this season!

I look at my life
And I still can't believe it
How did I make it
To where I stand now?
You don't understand
I was up against the whole world
And all I could feel was it breaking me down
But out of a hopeless situation
There came a song of redemption

Life may push my heart to the limit
But I won't let go
Of the joy in my soul
‘Cause everything can change in a minute
And the world may try
But they're never gonna steal my joy

So get up, stand up
And rise above it
If every plan
That you've made goes so wrong
You don't have to give in to the struggle
You may be down
But don't stay there for long
In every hopeless situation
There is a song of redemption

The world may say
You're never gonna make it
The world may say
You're not strong enough to take it
But I don't care
‘Cause the joy of the Lord is real
And they're never gonna steal my joy