And it isn't always the spiritual enemy. The thief could be our own emotions or thoughts.
Recently I've found myself not quite content. I couldn't tell you what was wrong because nothing was wrong but my insides. I wasn't dwelling on anything in particular. I was just existing. Kind of stir-crazy. Kind of in a funk.
Do you ever get that way?
If you do maybe you are allowing yourself to be stolen from by a thief (either the devil or a thief or our own making).
Jesus tells us in John 10:10, "'The thief comes only to steal, and kill, and destroy; I came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly.'"
I wasn't experiencing that life abundance.
It wasn't because I didn't have an abundance of blessings.
I do. My life is overflowing with blessings:
I have six incredible children (Maggie lives in heaven now but I cannot say I have only five when I know she is happy in heaven).
My yard and land is full of green! Wow. God has blessed us with rain this year and the green is so good for the soul! And the weather itself has been lovely!
I have these really nifty plastic clothes pins that work great on my clothesline. I don't hang out all the laundry but when I do it is lovely. I always think of my dear friend Sue (who also now lives in heaven). She used to tell me she loved to hang out laundry. I do too now!
When I recently flew off my horse I didn't get hurt. I didn't even get one bruise!
I have coffee.
I have food.
I have a loving husband and three cars that work.
Gosh, I could go on and on. And I bet you could too when you begin to think about the blessings in your life.
A verse that came to me years ago when I felt lost and sad was John 16:22c. In it Jesus tells His disciples (and us), that "no one takes your joy away from you."
That is a powerful truth. If our days have no joy then we need to find that joy. No one took it. We just personally have misplaced it.
Life is serious but not as serious as we sometimes make it out to be. And sometimes the reason we misplace our joy is because we take ourselves just a bit too seriously.
I do anyway.
May you be like a woodle today -- joyful just to be alive.