My lips will shout for joy when I sing praises to You; And my soul, which You have redeemed. - Psalm 71:23 NASB
If you are offended by my questioning the salvation of a fictional character I will tweak your nose. Many of us remember the heartwarming tale of Pollyanna, the sweet optimistic girl who taught a negative town to look on the bright side and think positively. Perhaps your ears still ring with the sound Bing Crosby singing "You've got to ac-cen-tuate the positive..." Both are a great deal of fun, and quite heartwarming, but neither comes close to the joy that we have in Christ. The best the world has to offer is to try to ignore the bad stuff and focus on the good stuff. As believers we have a far greater hope. Believers can look with eyes wide open at a world filled with hatred, sin, oppression and fear and say, "I am joyful, because the Lord will not let sin reign forever." A believer can look at the darkest heart in humanity and say, "I know the ONE Who can save him, and loves him enough to do it!" A believer can look at his or her repeated failures and rejoice because, "greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world." A believer can sustain the greatest injuries and losses because of all that we have been given in Jesus Christ, and take joy. And all of the Pollyannaisms in the world, or even an army of crooners, simply don't hold a candle to Him.
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