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Sunday Every Day?

“Every day will be Sunday by and by.” One Sunday night after church several years ago, my husband turned on the stereo to that old Blackwood Brothers’ song. It was not what I wanted to hear after an exhausting day. “If every day in heaven is like this one, I’m not sure I want to go,” I told him.

One of my friends, also the wife of a minister, had recently told me, “We look forward to Sunday. It is the greatest day of the week.” I was not sure I always looked forward to Sunday because of the demands by people. For me, Sundays had become a day to dread.

Shortly after that I read in my daily devotions from Isaiah 58:13,14, NIV “... if you call the Sabbath a delight … then you will find your joy in the Lord….”I understood the Old Testament considered the attitude toward the Sabbath as the attitude toward Jehovah.

I compared this to my attitude toward Sunday. Was my dread of Sunday revealing something about my attitude toward the Lord? In the pressure of the dailies, I had forgotten the privilege of ministry.

Ministry may sometimes be pressure, but it always is a privilege. Paul said “I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me … putting me into the ministry” (1 Timothy 1:12, KJV). A minister touches more lives at more levels than any other profession.

We rejoice with our members at weddings and all special occasions. We weep with them at difficult times. Doctors see those who are ill, lawyers assist the troubled, teachers influence young learners, but ministers touch them all.

When I began to focus on the privilege of ministry and not the problems, I approached Sundays with a different attitude. As Isaiah said, when the Sabbath is a delight, you find your joy in the Lord. And the joy of the Lord is our strength, even on difficult Sundays.

I wonder if we still have that old Blackwood Brothers cassette? It might be good to play it often, just to keep my attitude in check.

Prayer for this week:

Lord, help me to focus on the privilege of being in the ministry, rather than the problems. May the joy of the Lord be my strength today to minister as You did to others. Amen.

PEGGY MUSGROVE is a licensed Assemblies of God minister. She is also a speaker, freelance writer, author and prayer group leader. Her latest book, Musings of a Maraschino Cherry was released in 2004.. You can visit her at www.musgroveville.com.

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