Our youngest son, Daniel, had a habit of putting things off, especially in the area of work. He did not procrastinate on fun, but he did on work. God literally spoke to his heart, and it brought revelation to his life. The Holy Spirit said to him, “It takes more effort and energy to try to get out of work than it does to go ahead and do it.”
You may not know it, but dread is a close relative of fear.
We know that God has not given us a spirit of fear (2 Tim. 1:7 KJV), and since He did not give us fear, we know that He did not give us dread either. As a matter of fact, the Bible teaches us in several places not to dread.
In Deuteronomy 1:29,30 we read the words of Moses spoken to the Children of Israel about their enemies who held possession of the Promised Land: Then I said to you, Dread not, neither be afraid of them. The Lord your God Who goes before you, He will fight for you just as He did for you in Egypt before your eyes.
Notice that verse 30 speaks of “the Lord Who goes before you.” Jesus is our Pioneer. (Heb. 2:10.) That means that He goes out ahead of us and makes a way for us. When a project seems impossible or unpleasant, trust your Pioneer (Jesus) to go ahead of you and pave the way.
Perhaps you are going to have to be with people you feel do not accept you. You don’t enjoy being around them because they make you feel rejected. Instead of dreading the event as you normally would, spend the same spiritual energy trusting your Pioneer to go ahead of you and make the way easy.
Dread is like fear — it draws disaster. It is Satan’s open door to bring in the thing feared or dreaded.
I have found that dreading a task is actually more painful than doing it. Once I do it, it is finished, but as long as I put off doing it, the dread lingers on and on.
First Chronicles 22:13 is another Scripture that warns against dread. In this verse King David spoke to the Israelites and told them, Then you will prosper if you are careful to keep and fulfill the statutes and ordinances with which the Lord charged Moses concerning Israel. Be strong and of good courage. Dread not and fear not; be not dismayed.
It seems to me that this Scripture is saying that dread and fear will not only keep us from fulfilling God’s Word, but, as a result, it will also hinder our prosperity.
According to Hebrews 11:6, rewards come to those who believe that God exists and who diligently seek Him — those who operate in faith. In Romans 14:23, Paul says that whatever is not of faith is sin. I believe we can say with assurance that dread is not faith.
That which is dreaded may be something major or even something minor. Some people dread getting up in the morning, driving to work, fighting the traffic, facing confrontation, handling the boss or their employees, coming back home after work. They dread washing the dishes, going to the grocery store, doing the laundry, cleaning out the closet, dealing with family members and issues, even going to bed at night.
In your own life, you may want some new clothes, but dread going shopping. Perhaps you would like to see a friend or relative who lives some distance away, but you don’t want to go because you dread the drive. The trip could be made pleasant by a change of attitude. Use the time wisely by praying or listening to tapes.
Most people dread exercise, but it is something we all need. It is important for me to get some kind of aerobic exercise, so I walk on a treadmill. Like most people, I find myself wanting the benefits of exercise, and yet negative thoughts fill my mind and feelings of dread pour over my emotions. I do not have to keep them just because the devil offers them to me. I have learned to say no! As soon as the Holy Spirit makes me aware of the presence of dread, I say, “No, I’m not going to dread it — I’m just going to do it.”
If I let dread prevent me from doing my exercise, then I will regret that I did not do it. I use the time I spend on the exercise machine in prayer. Sometimes I have my secretary sit with me and we do office business while I exercise.
When exercising, it is possible to listen to music or tapes or even watch television. An adjustment in attitude and approach can change everything.
Let this be a day of decision for you — a day when you decide to no longer operate in regret and dread. Become a now person. Live in the present, not the past or the future. God has a plan for your life now. Trust Him today. Don’t put it off another day.
Believing God brings you into His rest and puts an end to the torment caused by living in regret and dread, but you must take action to believe God today. Don’t wait until tomorrow.
The writer of Hebrews 4:7 said of the Lord, Again He sets a definite day, [a new] Today, [and gives another opportunity of securing that rest] saying through David after so long a time in the words already quoted, Today, if you would hear His voice and when you hear it, do not harden your hearts.
I believe this word applies to everyone who is reading it right now! As you hear the Word of God, as you hear His voice, do not harden your heart. Believe today and begin today to refuse to live in regret and dread. Let this book be your point of contact to release your faith and take hold of God’s promise to take care of your past and your future.
In Hebrews 4:2 we are told that the Israelites heard this same message but it did not benefit them because they did not mix faith with it. I have learned that we can hear and hear about the promises of God, but the time comes when we must release our faith and say, “That is mine, and I will not live one more day without doing everything I can to enjoy it.”
Take the Pressure Off
I have learned from experience that living life one day at a time is something that can be done.
God gives me grace for today, but He does not give me grace today for yesterday or tomorrow. When I am trying to live yesterday today, it brings great pressure. The same thing happens if I am out into the future, dreading it or trying to figure it out. I have even discovered that it will make me grouchy, because I have to do it under pressure.
When God anoints something, there is a Holy Spirit ease to it. Oil is one of the symbols of the Holy Spirit, and oil speaks of ease. When that oil or anointing is not there, everything becomes hard.
Without the anointing, things have to be done under pressure. Living in regret and dread is pressure.
Take the pressure off, believe God and enter His rest.
Be a now person.
4
Joy and Peace Are Found in Believing
For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.
Romans 14:17 KJV
Joy is never released through unbelief, but it is always present where there is belief.
Believing is so much simpler than not believing.
If we do not believe God, His Word and promises, then we are left with the labor of reasoning and attempting to work out matters ourselves.
The writer of Hebrews 4:3 noted that we who have believed enter the rest of God. In Hebrews 4:10 he wrote: For he who has once entered [God’s] rest also has ceased from [the weariness and pain] of human labors. …
In Matthew 11:28 Jesus said: Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden and overburdened, and I will cause you to rest. [I will ease and relieve and refresh your souls.]
Jesus instructed us to come to Him, but how are we to come to Him? In Hebrews 11:6 we read: But without faith it is impossible to please and be satisfactory to Him. For whoever would come near to God must [necessarily] believe that God exists and that He is the rewarder of those who earnestly and diligently seek Him [out]. That means that when we come to God, we must do so believing. When we do, we will have joy, and where there is joy, there will also be enjoyment.
“What’s the Matter With Me?”
One night I seemed to be very miserable. I was just walking around my house doing what I needed to do, but not happy, not enjoying life.
“What’s the matter with me, Lord?” I asked. “What is my problem?”
It seemed that something was lurking within me, something that kept draining the joy out of me. As I wandered around the
house, I began looking at a Scripture box I kept on my desk.
I flipped it open and the Holy Spirit within me instantly confirmed the Scripture that came up: May the God of your hope so fill you with all joy and peace in believing [through the experience of your faith] that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound and be overflowing (bubbling over) with hope (Rom. 15:13).
I knew immediately that a large part of my problem was simply that I was doubting instead of believing. I was doubting the call of God on my life, wondering if He would meet our financial need, questioning my decisions and actions, etc.
I had become negative instead of positive.
I was doubting instead of believing.
Doubt is an attitude that can easily creep up on us; that’s why we must be watchful not to permit it to do so.
Doubt certainly may knock at the door of your heart. When it does, answer with a believing heart, and you will always maintain the victory.
The doubtful, negative mind is filled with reasoning. It rotates around and around the circumstance or situation, attempting to find answers for it. In the Word of God we are not instructed to search for our own answers. We are, however, instructed to trust God with all of our heart and mind. (Prov. 3:5.) When we follow the guidelines the Lord has laid out for us, they will unerringly bring us to joy and peace.
Joy Defined
This is God’s will for us, that we might have and enjoy life. Jesus did not die for you and me that we might be miserable. He died to deliver us from every kind of oppression and misery. His work is already finished, and the only thing that remains to be accomplished is for us to believe.
My understanding of joy, resulting from years of studying the subject, is that it covers a wide range of emotions, from calm delight to extreme hilarity. The times of extreme hilarity are fun, and we all need those moments of laughing and laughing until our sides hurt. We probably won’t live our lives that way on a day-to-day basis, but we need those times. Later in the book I will discuss the value of laughter. God has given us an ability to laugh, so there must be a reason!
We should grow in our ability to enjoy life and be able to say, “I live my life in a state of calm delight.” I think calm delight is a mixture of peace and joy.
According to Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, some of the Greek words relating to joy in the Bible mean “delight,” “gladness,” “exceeding joyful,” “exuberant joy,” “to exult, rejoice greatly … with exceeding joy.”1An explanatory note in Vine’s biblical dictionary says, “‘Joy’ is associated with life. …”2
Webster defines the word joy as “great pleasure or happiness: DELIGHT,” “The expression or display of this emotion,” “A source or object of pleasure or satisfaction,” and (in the archaic form) “To fill with joy,” or “To enjoy.”3
In Vine’s biblical dictionary, the two Greek words translated enjoy in the King James Bible are 1) tunchano, a verb meaning “to reach, get, obtain,” which is also translated “enjoy (i.e., obtain to our satisfaction)” and, 2) apolausis, a noun meaning “enjoyment,” which is a form of another Hebrew word apolauo meaning “to take hold of, enjoy a thing,” and “suggests the advantage or pleasure to be obtained from a thing.”4
In Webster’s dictionary, the verb enjoy is defined as “to rejoice,” “to derive pleasure from: RELISH,” “to have the benefit or use of” (as in the expression “enjoys good living”) and “to make happy” (as in the phrase “enjoying themselves with a new game”).5
Have and Enjoy Life
In John 10:10 we see that Jesus came so we might have and enjoy life. They are two different things to me. It is possible to be alive and not enjoy life.
Webster used the word “relish” to define enjoyment. Think about it like this: People put relish on hot dogs or sandwiches to make them taste better. These foods can be eaten without the relish, but the relish adds to the flavor, the enjoyment, of them.
Life is the same way. We can blandly live our lives, going through the motions of working, accomplishing, doing — and never truly enjoying life.
Enjoying life is a decision, just like putting relish on a hot dog is a decision. Jesus gave us life so we can derive pleasure from being alive, not just so we can go through the motions and try to survive until He comes back for us or takes us home.
Life should be celebrated!
Celebrate Life
But the fruit of the [Holy] Spirit [the work which His presence within accomplishes] is love, joy (gladness), peace, patience (an even temper, forbearance), kindness, goodness (benevolence), faithfulness,
Gentleness (meekness, humility), self-control (self-restraint, continence). …
Galatians 5:22,23
Doubt and unbelief are thieves of joy, but simple childlike believing releases the joy that is resident in our spirits because of the Holy Spirit Who lives in us. As we see in Galatians 5:22,23, one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit is joy. Therefore, since we are filled with God’s Holy Spirit, we believers should express joy and enjoy our lives.
We might look at it like this, joy is in the deepest part of the person who has accepted Jesus as his Savior — joy is in his spirit. But if his soul (his mind, will and emotions) is filled with worry, negative thoughts, reasoning, doubt and unbelief, these negative things will become like a wall that holds back the release of the fruit of joy resident in him.
The Apostle Peter said to cast all our care (anxieties, worries, concerns) on the Lord. (1 Pet. 5:7.) Paul exhorted the believers of his day, Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus (Phil. 4:6,7 NKJV).
Keep your mind filled with happy, glad thoughts, and, as you trust God, He will take care of your problems.
Believe!
Jesus replied, This is the work (service) that God asks of you: that you believe. …
John 6:29
God’s plan for us is actually so simple that many times we miss it. We tend to look for something more complicated — something more difficult — that we are expected to do to please God. Jesus has told us what we are to do to please the Father, “Believe!”
Jesus also said, Truly I say to you, whoever does not accept and receive and welcome the kingdom of God like a little child [does] shall not in any way enter it [at all] (Luke 18:17).
A few years ago, I began to realize that I was a very complicated person and that my habit of complicating things was stealing my joy — it was preventing me from really enjoying life. It was then that God began to speak to me about simplicity.
Frequently, I write in a journal or notebook the things that God is teaching me or dealing with me about. Here are some of the things I wrote in October 1988:
“I have been struggling inwardly for a long time with something I cannot even define. I think God is bringing me up out of being complicated and trying to teach me to ‘be,’ instead of ‘do’ all the time. He is trying to teach me to enjoy simple things.
“It seems I keep looking for something to do in my free time that I will really enjoy and I keep coming up with nothing. Tonight, it seems the Lord said to me, ‘Learn to enjoy the simple things in life.’ And then I wrote, ‘God help me. I’m not even sure I know what simplicity is.’”
I have had to learn and am still learning what simplicity is and how to approach things with a simple attitude. One of the things I have learned is that believing is much simpler than doubting. Doubt brings in confusion and often depression. It causes us to speak doubtful and negative things out of our mouths.
Believing, on the other hand, releases joy and leaves us free to enjoy life while God is taking care of our circumstances and situations. It sounds almost too good to be true, and that is exactly why many people never enter into God’s plan. There are countless thousands upon thousands of people who have accepted Jesus as their Savio
r. They are on their way to heaven, but they are not enjoying the trip.
It is like a person who was given a brand new home as a gift. He is presented with the keys — to the garage, the front door, the back door, the basement door and all the rooms in the house that have locks on them. The home belongs to him, but he can own it all his life and never live in it and enjoy it if he does not use the keys to open the doors and enter in.
Often the thing that keeps us from entering into and enjoying the life that God has freely bestowed upon us is our own sin consciousness.
Sin
For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
Hebrews 4:15,16 KJV
Let’s examine the subject of sin. People struggle with their sins, and often it is one of the chief causes of their not entering into the joy-filled life Jesus died to give them.
Sin is a real problem for most people, and the interesting thing is, sin does not have to be a big problem.
Do you know that God has already made provision in His Word for human mistakes, weaknesses and failures? Most people make a much bigger deal out of these things than God does in His Word.
Hebrews 4:15,16 tells us that Jesus understands our human frailty because He was tempted in every way that we are, yet without sinning. Therefore, because He is our High Priest, interceding with the Father for us, we can come boldly to God’s throne to receive the grace, favor, mercy and help that we need.
Believe and Receive
Notice that the Scripture says that we come to the throne of God to receive. I want to emphasize this point because in a sense the word “receive” is synonymous with the word “believe.”