To Be Happy Again — Basilea Schlink

God lives and works today, but maybe you don't feel that way because your life has become joyless. Perhaps you feel cold and hard towards God. Then today's meditation by Basilia Schling can help you to find the key to being happy again.

The Hidden Treasure of Everlasting Joy

A close friend of ours shared with us how she found a hidden treasure, the treasure of everlasting joy. It happened on her 31st birthday. She told us, I have a daily meditation book which gives a Bible verse for each day.

The Joy of God’s Pardoning Mercy

I like to take the verse that appears on my birthday to be my special verse for the coming year. On my 31st birthday, the verse was Micah 7 verse 18, Who is a God like thee, pardoning iniquity? I sensed that there was a note of joy in this verse, which I didn't have.

How Sin Dulls the Conscience

There was a time in my life when I did have this great joy. At that time, my heart had been filled with grief and sorrow over my sin, over how I had wronged God and my fellow man. Then I would often sing, there is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.

The Loss of Joy Through Unconfessed Sin

What a blessed assurance to be forgiven of all our sins through his blood. But during the course of time, I no longer took my sins so seriously. Whether I was saying unkind things about others, or reacting harshly, or having bitter thoughts, or whether it was drifting further and further away from Jesus and my prayer life, my conscience became dull.

Therefore, the jubilant cry, Who is a God like thee, pardoning iniquity? had faded out of my life. This birthday became a turning point. I began to pray, bring my sins into the light of your countenance.

Praying for a Contrite and Repentant Heart

Let me recognize them. Give me a contrite and repentant heart. The Lord answered. He opened my blind eyes, and I began to see and weep over my sins again. The jubilant shout, Who is a God like thee, pardoning iniquity? began to resound again in my heart, and has increased more and more throughout the years.

Repentance as the Key to True Joy

The Lord had shown me the key, the key to great joy, the recognition of sin and repentance. Yes, this great joy is waiting for all of us. We will find it when we ask over and over again, as our friend did.

Lord, show me daily my sin and guilt towards you and others. Give me a heart that weeps over my sin. Yes, this gift of repentance will bring us true joy. Our whole life will become new.

A Renewed Life Through Repentance

Sweet Lord of life, I will now strive, no more to grieve, I say.

You have been listening to a program written by Basile Schlenk of the Little Land of Canaan. To learn more about how God lives and works today, visit us at our website, www .canaan .org. That's K-A-N-A-A-N dot org.

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