Hebrews 12:1-3 says to run the race with endurance, looking to Jesus "so that you may not grow weary or exhausted, losing heart and relaxing and fainting in your minds" (v.3).
Do you look at a sink full of dirty dishes and want to faint in your mind? Does the thought of mowing the lawn get you depressed? Do you dread making a particular phone call or even a party you are planning?
God has taught me that to enjoy life, I must learn how to enjoy everything.
You may ask, "Now, how could I enjoy cleaning house?" It all depends on your mindset.
Dread Is Mindset
The devil has programmed us with a mindset to enjoy certain things but to dread others.
For example my daughter said to me, "I remember when I dreaded working all week, but I really looked forward to the weekends. As soon as the weekends came near the end, I started dreading going to work again."
There is no telling how many millions of people dread their jobs. But if you are working, you might as well enjoy it. Dread will steal any joy you could experience when working, and it will also steal your joy while you are away from work as you are dreading going back!
As Christians, we can do unpleasant things and enjoy them because the Holy Spirit is in us. We can enjoy Him in the midst of adverse or unpleasant conditions. This is a privilege that unsaved people do not have. Our joy comes from Who is inside us.
Reset Your Mindset
Last year my husband, Dave, and I and some of our ministry team went to India. The flight lasted around sixteen hours - a lot of hours to sit on a plane!
If you have a mindset of dread, you will have a mouthful of dread. I found myself saying, "I am dreading being on a plane for sixteen hours. Sitting still that long is really hard for me, and I know that trip will be boring!"
I could have said, "I'm looking forward to going to India - I believe God will make the trip interesting. We are going to have a great time on that plane."
God began to show us that if we set our minds on enjoying the trip, it wouldn't be bad. We set our minds to enjoy each other and for the time to go by quickly. And we enjoyed the trip!
As believers in Jesus, we are supernatural people. We can decide ahead of time to enjoy doing something we would not normally consider enjoyable. We can set ourselves up for joy or for misery. It all depends on the attitude we decide to have.
When we are dreading something, we can make a decision and state: "I am not going to dread that."
Then we can release our faith through praying by simply saying, "Lord, I thank You that You are helping me perform this task. It is unpleasant in the natural realm, but Your anointing can come on me to make this pleasant. Because I am supernatural, I can enjoy this task even though other people might not. The devil is not going to steal my joy in this, in Jesus' name."
If we dread cleaning house but have to clean it anyway, what is the sense in dreading it? Instead we might approach it this way: "I have the house to clean, and I will do it with a good attitude. I have the joy of the Lord. I can enjoy anything. Anything!"
If we set our minds to it, we can enjoy everything we do in life.
All rights reserved. Used by permission.