Acceptance with Joy...

For months now I have been praying about joy, or my lack of it. I have been searching for the "secret" to it. Abide in God- well that is the secret for everything, but when you are abiding and still no joy- what then? When it takes every ounce of energy to get through your day doing the bare minimum how do you even try to seek joy? Well, I have come across a little passage in a book that leaped out at me and I am devouring it in prayer and thought. It is from the book Hinds Feet on High Places and it says:

I've learned that I must accept with joy all that you allowed to happen to me on the way and everything to which the path led me! That I was never to try to evade it but accept it and lay down my own will on the altar and say, "Behold me, I am thy little handmaiden Acceptance-with-Joy. (p 240)

So I have read and reread this because I want to learn this and live this out. Lord, I am your handmaiden and you may do as you wish with me and my life. I am here to be poured out before you and I pray you find my life a reasonable sacrifice to you. I am so very grateful for You and all you have done in my life, for I see that without you I would have been full of misery and bondage. I am truly so appreciative and pray only that I may be more bold for your name's sake. In time I look forward to being filled with rapturous joy! I desire only to do your will, so please help me see your direction and hear your voice.

O- one more thing I must share about the book- in case you have never read it- (and if you haven't I recommend doing so)...the companions that travel with the main character are Sorrow and Suffering, but in time they get new names and guess what they might be...(read the book to find out). haha :)

Have a blessed weekend!
In His love and strength,
Rose