A Glad Heart Feasts

Proverbs 15
15 All the days of the desponding and afflicted are made evil [by anxious thoughts and forebodings], but he who has a glad heart has a continual feast [regardless of circumstances].

C. Austin Miles
I’m living on the mountain, underneath a cloudless sky,
I’m drinking at the fountain that never shall run dry;
Oh, yes! I’m feasting on the manna from a bountiful supply,
For I am dwelling in Beulah Land.

• Is my heart glad? Are we sitting at the banqueting table, communing with Our Father in Heaven? Are we feasting on the Spiritual manna from His bountiful supply? Some of these things are easy to sing in church but are we living that reality? Are we daily singing God’s praises and rejoicing in His Salvation regardless of our circumstance?
• Truly we battle principalities and powers, but most of all we battle our flesh and its constant desire to leave the secret place of the Most High. These past two weeks my situation at work has become very tense and isolating. I have been sitting, writing this during my breaks at work, in a room with three work colleagues who are conspiring against me, looking to find any way to bring me down. This truth has been a beautiful encouragement but also a sharp conviction. In whatever situation I find myself, as a child of God I have access into His presence where I can call upon Him and acquire all that I need to endure. Jesus Christ has given us His gladness. But will I live in it or will I let my flesh determine my actions?
• The gladness comes before the feast! It is faith that trusts in God’s Word that allows us to enter His banqueting house and allows us to feast at His table of communion. It is by singing praises unto Him that we eat! Paul and Silas had that faith. Despite their circumstance, with beaten and bound bodies, before there was any tremor in the prison walls, their glad hearts were feasting on the goodness of God!

Acts 16
25 But about midnight, as Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the [other] prisoners were listening to them,

• Paul and Silas were freed within a few hours but, of course, God’s people can find themselves bound and beaten down for much longer. Consider Joseph serving as a slave or David constantly running from hiding place to Hiding Place. They, along with others, endured terrible circumstances, but by faith, they feasted on The Lord despite what they were going through!
• David often writes from a painful and broken disposition, with his heart breaking and a desperate cry for deliverance. Times of sorrow and grief come to us all, we will all be led into the valley of death, in the world Jesus tells us that we WILL suffer tribulation. There is no teaching against sorrow, grief or weeping in God’s word… Jesus has come to tenderly bind up and heal the brokenhearted (Isaiah 61:1) God created us with emotions and we have been designed to feel them. Each of them is designed to lead us to The Lord and, through faith, He has given us the power to discipline, control and overcome them.

2 Corinthians 6
4 But in all things we commend ourselves as ministers of God: in much patience, in tribulations, in needs, in distresses,
…
10 as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.

• The key to such gladness of heart is faith! It is a very simple choice to either believe God’s word or not. Regardless of our circumstance will we choose to sing His praises, just because we love Him? Not just in church but will we praise Him through the day when the enemy is coming in like a flood and all seems to be against us? David recognises this battle between flesh and faith. He recognises that his flesh may sorrow but he determines that his heart will praise!
• This is the day that The Lord has made! (Psalm 118:24) I choose to believe that! He will never leave me nor forsake me! (Hebrews 13:5) I will believe that! I believe His Word! I believe I am HIS! I believe the battle is HIS! I believe He will protect HIS testimony in Me! I will trust in The Lord and cry out for HIS will to be done and trust that He will fulfil it! Happy are those whose God is The Lord! (Psalm 144:15) I believe that!! Oh Hallelujah! I will believe it!!

Psalm 42
11 Why are you cast down, O my inner self? And why should you moan over me and be disquieted within me? Hope in God and wait expectantly for Him, for I shall yet praise Him, Who is the help of my countenance, and my God.

• Sometimes we can feel like Lot, with our souls tortured every day, greatly worn out and distressed; Sorrow and grief may overwhelm us, and sweep the ground from our feet; The enemy make come in like a flood, conspiring, and plotting and it may seem that everything is against us! The Word of God tells us to “weep with those who weep” Romans 12:15 And may we, as God’s body and messengers, be quick to comfort and support the members who need it. I can truly testify and thank The Lord for how His body (loving friends and family) have prayed with and for me and I stand today in the power of Jesus prayers through His body! May we give a shoulder to the weak, strengthen the hands of those who are weary, comfort the sorrowing with tenderness and lead each other to the presence of Jesus where He will minister, for He has come to bind up and heal that broken heart. In Him our hearts can be glad! In Him we can rejoice! In Him we can feast on the bread of life and living water! Whatever our outward circumstance our hearts can be glad in Jesus and feasting on His fullness!