Cheers!
What kind of images spring into your mind when you hear the word, “Cheers!”
Well, if you have a background like mine, you might think of people at a party, maybe a little inebriated, clinking glasses in robust celebration.
Or maybe it causes you to think about the reserved Brits, that stoically maintain their excellent posture, adding a “Pip! Pip!” to their “Cheerio!”
How about the famed “Cheers” television show… wasn’t the by-line, “Where everyone knows your name and you’re always glad you came”?
How ever you view it, the word “cheers” summons thoughts of inviting lightness, fun, and comfort. There is something enlivening and pleasant about the word. When we “cheer” someone on, we are encouraging and strengthening them with our support. It’s like our energies combine and produce a zest for living, the extra steam we need to make it to the finish line, or just the sheer joy of knowing someone really cares.
I am blessed to have such an infinite reservoir of cheer so readily available to me. Sometimes it flows from my amazing husband. Sometimes through kind and generous friends. Sometimes it even flows through my kids! But it always, always, always flows through the Lord. I come regularly to Him to get my dose of cheer, and He is always happy to dole it out. In His often quiet way, He calls me when I am distressed or sad, and says, “Come. Come to Me….” I don’t always know why, but I come because He has proven to me that whatever it is I come for, it will be good. I may enter His presence feeling downcast, but I always leave it glad, satisfied, and filled with new hope and courage.
As I have studied and meditated on “cheer,” my idea about how the Lord “cheers me up” has exploded! Consider this: to brighten up, to be made blithe, light, merry, or gleesome; to be made glad and joyful; to have courage, to be daring and bold. Think what life would be like with more courage, lightness and merriment?
Cheer infuses energy! It imparts strength! It feels…. Good!!
The Lord has that for me!!! The Lord has that for you! We just need to go and get it!
The Lord has revealed to me the power behind this word, and so, today’s entry will be the first in a series. To further your appreciation of this word and how and why God wants us to appropriate it, check these out when you are having your “Java, Jammies, and Jesus” times! Matthew 9:2; Matthew 14:27; Mark 6:50; John 16:33
