put on the smile

Just a thought about something which I originally wanted to share during the last devotions on friday... but I decided not to because it seemed rather out-of-place. But since we now have a blog, I thought I might as well just post it here... Hopefully it makes some sense.

Because I'm a rather confused person, therefore I don't even feel like I understand myself most of the time. I don't know why I do things, but just because I do them... so often, I feel as if I were having multiple personalities.. because I could be happy for a moment and then suddenly walk away the next, feeling sad... maybe I'm just mad.. but oh well...

Here goes:

Keeping up appearances…? Why do we have appearances… why do we say that we’re tired of putting up a smile? If we say that we’re keeping up appearances, then it means that we’re not really joyful, but rather we’re creating a double standard for ourself.

We should be joyful in spirit… in our hearts, we should have that supernatural joy of God, and that will overflow into our speech and actions… not because we force ourselves into it, but because it’s in our nature…

In God’s kingdom, there’s freedom. What is this freedom? This is not freedom to let our minds wander and to let the devil come and implant his thoughts into our mind, but freedom in Christ… It’s freedom in Christ that allows us not to be bound by what others do, what they think and how they perceive us. It’s about living for God. Ignoring those who try to put us down. Just as when we’re happy, we don’t want to be put down, same thing goes for everyone… why should we be putting others down when they’re feeling happy?

What kind of appearances are we putting up? Is it because we have never really committed things into God’s hands, but rather we’re holding on to our past (values and everything…). We’re not smiling in our spirit, but we are placing the veil… But 2 corinthians 3:16 says that the veil is taken off because of Christ… so, why are we still keeping up appearances? Aren’t we supposed to live in freedom? We must cultivate that joyful spirit…something which I really need to learn…