Repeat words of truth

I have challenged myself to say these verses to myself whenever I feel low during the day:

• ‘This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.’ Psalm 188:24 (ESV)
• ‘…the joy of the Lord is my strength.’ Nehemiah 8:10

I find these verses super challenging. The last thing I want to do when I feel rubbish is rejoice!  However the reason I have picked them is to remind me that each day is a gift from God and he wants me to glorify him in all that I say and do. It’s clearly something he wants me to learn and dwell on, I love that the verse of the day from my Bible reading today is:

When I’m low I also force myself to think of things I am thankful for. Or in complete honesty this is not something I often manage to initiate myself, this is why it is important to have people to take the journey with you (more on this here). My husband often asks me to list 20 things I’m thankful for and won’t let me move on until I do it!  Sometimes I start very basic: food, shelter, water. You realise you have a lot to be thankful for even if life is very hard. By doing this it helps me to start shifting my focus from me and my problems to God and his love and care for me.

So the long and short of this post is that it is good to keep saying verses. Even if you struggle to believe them initially God uses scripture to challenge and encourage us. As it says in Ephesians 6:10-19 when talking about the armour of God, the weapon God gives us is the sword of the spirit which is the word of God (v17). This is the way God intended us to fight! There will be more on the amour of God in a future post.