Just a short post today about something I just posted on my personal timeline

Just a short post today about something I just posted on my personal timeline. I'm always seeing the 'Post' box on my page saying, "How are you feeling Lary? Anyway I'm always thinking, "What the heck is this about? Well, I made a short, funny comment [Well I tried anyway] that I feel great! All the time! Or at least almost all the time anyway. That's what I said, and I got to thinking about it a little bit afterward, and I thought of what a blessedness it is that the comment that I put on there really is true. I really do feel great almost all the time. And I can remember a time in my life when that was NOT the case. Truly, as king David said at the end of his life, "The Lord has redeemed my soul out of all distress" (I Kin. 1:29). That is absolutely my personal testimony as well, and has been for thirty two years and counting. How well I remember the emptiness and confusion of living only for this present life, and trying to find real happiness and fulfillment therein. It wasn't to be, and it will NOT be; not for me, you, or anyone else who does or ever has went down that road of futility. But the Lord found me in great despair, bowed down under the power of sin and all of its lies; and he lifted my soul out of it all, and filled me with such a glorious peace and love that I could never have imagined that it even existed. Yes my friend, I yielded my life to Jesus, and he personally baptized me with those "living waters" of his and the Father's very life substance (Jn. 4:13,14; Jn. 7:37-39; Rom. 8:2; I Cor. 12:13).

From that time till now I have always known the way to that joyous satisfaction of soul that I came into all those years ago. And that way is the FIRST way that I found it to begin with: Humility, honesty, faith, and perseverance in those things. The Lord has righted many wrongs for me, strengthened my weaknesses, healed my inner pain as well as my body; and he's carried me through the fire and the deep waters, even as he has promised: "When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee" (Isa. 43:2). And maybe the most beautiful of all things, he truly has never changed on me (Mal. 3:6; Heb. 13:8; Jas. 1:17). Not once. "Faithful and True" really does describe the love of God that he has offered and shown to man through his Son Jesus (Rev. 19:11; Jn. 3:16). What a wondrous promise it surely is that says, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee;" and unlike people, he always means what he says (Heb. 13:5). My aim is to see to it that I never forsake HIM, not even a little bit for a little while. Continuing in his otherworldly rest takes a lot of praying, and it takes a total resolve to do his will rather than yours or someone else's. But I love the life and the love that Jesus has given me, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Yes, I'm truly thankful that I feel great, almost all of the time. Amen.