Daily Chizuk #0395

The Opportunity Is Here!
The Torah tells us, “ואהבת את ה' אלקיך בכל לבבך ובכל נפשך ובכל מאודך – we are to love Hashem with all of our hearts, will all of our soul and all of our money. The Gemara explains this to mean even if Hashem is taking a person’s soul or taking his money, he still has to love Hashem. How does a person show his love? The Gemara says further, by accepting what Hashem is doing to him with joy and thanking him repeatedly for it, believing that it’s coming from Hashem’s mercy for his best. The Gemara asks further, if a person has to show his love for Hashem even if Hashem’s taking his life, isn’t it obvious that he has to show that love when He’s taking his money? So why does money have to be mentioned at all? The Gemara answers, because there are some people who value money even more than life. And for them, the pasuk needed to say money. We see from here how valuable a person’s assets are to him.
Hashem gave us a mitzvah to accept what’s happening with joy and thank and praise Him for it. We can’t even begin to fathom how valuable that service is.
If a person is feeling sorry for himself and getting frustrated or depressed, it’s not going to help the situation at all, it’s only going to make it worse. On the other hand, if he chooses to accept it with joy and thank Hashem for it, he’ll be fulfilling the greatest mitzvah, he’ll be elevating his spiritual level to a whole other sphere, he’ll be rewarded for his faith for all of eternity.
The opportunity is here, let us take advantage of it. It’ll remove our sadness, it’ll remove our stress. Thank Hashem and thank Him again and, when you’re finished, thank Him again. It’ll make us so great.