Happy? Praise!

"...is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms.” (James 5:13 NKJV)

Before you throw a party to commemorate your achievement, before you place that call of 'good news',  even before you stand in front of the congregation to give the testimony;  calm down and ponder. 

“Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.” (James 1:16-17 NKJV)

“A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven.” (John 3:27 NKJV)

Beyond the the sophisticated security system of your street, remember  "Unless the LORD guards the city, The watchman stays awake in vain.”

You didnt just buy that car nor build that house because of your financial discipline and good saving culture, for "Unless the LORD builds the house, They labor in vain who build it"

Before you talk about the smartness of the driver when you escaped from an accident, remember no one can preserve except God.

Remember all these and give God thanks; give Him thanks privately before you publicize it. Acknowledge Him sincerely as your ONLY source and sustainer. And if you must throw a party for the goodness you have received, why not through a 'worship party'. 

Service of songs should not only be done during funeral; we can have collection of songs that talk about the greatness of God; and call friends and family together for a time when every participant is ministering to the Lord as they behold His majesty and splendor. 

Every other thing including food in such gathering will be an addendum. God would be exalted and the name of Our Lord Jesus would be glorified. how about that?

Suffering? Pray!

“Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray."  Period!
Affliction should not be an excuse for rage, neither are you excusable if you have to go for counseling on every matter of your life.
When the believers were persecuted in the book of Acts, they did not throw tantrums under the guise of 'holy anger' nor did they engage in verbal assault. ALL they did was to PRAY.
“And being let go, they went to their own companions and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. So when they heard that, they raised their voice to God with one accord and said: “Lord, You are God, who made heaven and earth and the sea, and all that is in them,... And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.”
(Acts 4:23-24, 29 NKJV)
In the multitude of godly counsel there is safety. I would have made some detrimental mistakes in life if not for some godly counsel I got at the nick of time. I have sought counsel many times and I will still do, yet, I know that, the believer's life is not meant to regulated by external guidance.
Seek counsel when you need to, but more importantly do what the bible says... Pray!
Most of the things we do as humans are habitual, you can thus develop an habit of prayer.
If you will form an habit of making prayer your first resort, in most circumstances, it ll end up becoming the only thing you have to do get direction/guidance.
“Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms.” (James 5:13 NKJV)
got it?

Beware of Pride (3)

Sense of unworthiness before God is pride, though it mostly appear as a shade of it. You cant get access to God nor win His approval by talking down on yourself before Him.
If you are not born again, access to God is simply by receiving the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior.
If you are a believer, you already have uninterrupted access to Him and you already have His approval.
See what the Bible says about you:

“Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have ACCESS by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” (Romans 5:1-2 NKJV)

“according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and ACCESS with confidence through faith in Him.” (Ephesians 3:11-12 NKJV)

“And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. For through Him we both have ACCESS by one Spirit to the Father. Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,”
(Ephesians 2:17-19 NKJV)

If you still want to keep your sense of unworthiness after seeing these scriptures, then, I have no apology for saying you are proud.
You are proud because you are exalting what you know about yourself above what God says about you.
God, the most holy God, says He has granted you eternal access freely, through the blood of Jesus, and you are insisting its not so. Are you more righteous than God?
You can not align with the tax collector in the parable of Matt. 18:9-14.  The tax collector was right to have called himself a sinner because as at the time the death of Jesus that brought us the gift righteousness and access to God was still in the future.
After Jesus died and rose again, we received the very life of God that makes us worthy to stand in His presence unashamed - This is grace.
He qualified the unqualified; He discharged and acquitted the guilty because Jesus paid the price.

“Giving thanks to the Father, Who has qualified and made us fit to share the portion which is the inheritance of the saints (God's holy people) in the Light.” (Colossians 1:12 AMP).

“Yet God freely and graciously declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.” (Romans 3:24 NLT)

Blessed?

Beware of Pride (2)

“For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.” (Romans 12:3 NKJV)
Pride is not just arrogance (exerggerated estimate of self), low self-esteem is also pride. Arrogance and low self-esteem are polar ends of the same stick.
Low self-esteem is expressed in inferiority complex, looking down and talking down on yourself, constantly seeking approval and affirmation from others, having a sense of unworthiness before God etc.
Consider this hypothetical  scenario, a man spent a minute before his rendition to talk about his bad voice and other inadequacies he has in the area of music, yet he secretly relished the commendation and the applaud that attended his rendition; his sincerity is put to test, if anyone tells him after his rendition, 'you sang real bad and your voice is as bad as you described it' ; he will most likely throw some covert tantrums in his heart.
True humility consists in accepting what Gods says about you while you talk, live and carry yourself based on His report of you. No more, no less.

This God is our Friend

“For this is God, Our God forever and ever; He will be our guide Even to death.” Psalms 48:14 NKJV

“No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.”

John 15:15 NKJV

At crucial moments when you need a friend, conferring with God as friend might continue to look like an 'impassable gulf' until your heart gets acquainted with Him. 

When the heart is not intimate with God, it cant relate with Him as friend because in a deep sense of friendship, God is a stranger to that heart; and its typical of humans to be reserved towards strangers. 

The hearts of many precious saints are enstranged from God, hence the symptom manifest in the fact that human beings seem to be the only 'realistic' source of counsel for them in times of need.

Tests and trials have revealed time and again that a lot of believerss dont know God as friend; their view of best friend is only confined to relationship with humans. Even when they call God their best friend, they deny the claim in practice. 

While I do not undermine the importance of godly relationships among humans,  it suffices to affirm that, our God is a faithful and trustworthy friend, and No one is as tolerant as Him.

Constant fellowship with God in prayer and the word endears the heart to Him. Its in the course of such incessant communion with God that the heart progressively becomes 'aware' (conscious) of God as friend and even as all in all. At such point, sharing your burden with Him and seeking His counsel become the 'natural' thing to do;

He wont betray you, 

He will not backstab or backbite you,

He wont even make jest of you, 

your mistakes or weaknesses will not be a loop hole for attack when you offend Him, 

your private issues will now remain 'private' indeed because you are now walking with the most reliable confidant in heaven and earth as your friend. seen it?

Remember! (6)

“And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.”

(Ephesians 4:32 NKJV)

The sacrifice of Christ is the greatest expression of love and forgiveness; the love that offered the innocent for the guilty without reservation. 

As a believer, you must always remember in your relationship with people that you are a recipient/beneficiary of a great love you didn't deserve otherwise you will be guilty like that servant who was forgiven much and refused to forgive someone who owed him something little (Matt. 18:21-35)

You hold someone in unforgiveness  because  he keeps repeating the same 'fault'(may be he often speaks to you rudely) and you dislike him for it; but do you realise that by the standard of God's holiness and righteousness most of your attitude you explain away under the guise of 'innate weakness' is sin before God? and yet He put up with you in love. 

There is nothing anybody can do to you, no matter how bad, that could match what you have done to God. 

Before you create a hype around people's fault, remember how "...God in Christ forgave you” - you did not only deserve death, but you were doomed to eternal destruction before Jesus forgave you.

Having been forgiven so much, you can't have excuse for not forgiving others.

If you still hold people in unforgiveness, its either that you don't know the magnitude of God's love for you or you have forgotten it. got it?