During a time where I was praying and fasting, God gave me one little word. I wasn’t looking for this word. I didn’t see it coming. I was looking for something else…something that seemed so much more important. I was drowning in all the questions of life. Am I where I'm supposed to be? Am I doing what I’m supposed to be doing? I was surrounded by confusion in my single-minded, brute-force, straight-ahead attack, when out of nowhere that one little word appeared and all my stress was swept away. That’s not to say that all my problems disappeared. They still remained as imminent as ever, but now I was seeing them from a different perspective, perhaps a higher elevation. I am still seeking guidance for those problems, but my burden has lightened. What tiny, little word could do all this you might ask? Joy!
Never forget that you were made to be full of joy! Now I know that the circumstances of life will roundhouse kick you into a pile of problems, so you’ve got an excuse not to have joy then, right? Nope! We are command to rejoice in the Lord always (Philippians 4:4) because He has overcome the problems of this world (John 16:33).
So how on God’s green earth is this "continual joy" practically accomplished? First, you need to know that joy is a God-given internal state of mind and not based on your circumstances. People think joy is an outward expression of happiness, but that is only the result of the true internal joy. Knowing this, I have learned that I have to choose joy because it is always an option, even when I don’t think it is. But still, every day after I received that three-letter word, my joy has been threatened, and sometimes it has been stolen from me. Every now and then I could use a little boost of joy as a reminder, and that’s where this little webpage comes in. It’s an anthology of doodles and dabbling into the joy of the Bible – a record and reminder to choose God-given joy!
Life is serious. So enjoy.
If you get up from the roundhouse kick to land a haymaker on your problems:
No comments:
Post a Comment