Joy.

My morning started off rather rough. My birthday morning. Tears included. And guess what? I was planning on writing a chapter about joy. Great. How to begin? Hmmm, how about a bible verse? 1 Corinthians 2:9 "What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him" This means that he has wonderful, beautiful treasures in store for us... but what can I (we) be taught through that?

Emotions

Sometimes, it's not easy to rejoice. Sometimes life knocks us to our knees, or even flat on our back, and we think we can't be happy, but that's just it, the bible actually doesn't command us to be happy... no, don't stop reading, I am not crazy... most of the time. Happiness isn't wrong, but it's not permanent.

We get ice cream. We're happy!

We spill our ice cream. We're sad.

We're going to the movies. We’re happy!

It stinks. We’re sad.

It’s Saturday. We’re happy!

It’s Monday. We’re sad.

That’s life. And that’s “emotions” We live in a culture that says we should always be happy, and do what makes us happy, but that’s just the problem. Constant happiness is a lie. As I said, God doesn’t command us to be happy, he calls us to rejoice.

Be constant in joy

“Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I say rejoice!” ~Philipians 4:4 Ok… but this verse doesn’t spell out “always have joy” ...actually, it does! Dial into the word, it’s re - joice. Which is a combination of re- (which means do over again) and Joy, so this means that we should have joy over and over, never ending! We should also rejoice in the Lord, jump for joy in his blessings, they are overflowing! So, why don’t we? Because, it’s not “cool” ummm, forget what I just said, it doesn’t matter if it’s not “cool” because God doesn’t care. I know the feeling of wanting to fit in, (oh too well!) But God is going to give us riches in heaven, and what can our “cool” friends give us? TEMPORARY laughs? TEMPORARY friends? And then some TEARS. And then some BROKEN friendships. Yea. Not so cool. But God’s blessings are PERMANENT. His joyful riches will never stop.

You are set free

You know what? You deserve nothing. And no, I am not saying that you are nothing (oh no!) Just that you deserve nothing. In fact, we deserve worse. But wait! Jesus died for us. He gave His life for us. Then rose again from the dead. Now, instead of getting what we deserve, we are free. Instead of being guilty, we are forgiven. Instead of being punished, we are blessed. Instead of separation, we get to spend eternity with Christ. And I don’t care if you have heard that message a gazillion times since the day you were born. It’s still something to be excited about. For some Christian kids, if you tell them that, they will roll their eyes and think it's dumb. They have heard it, but shut their hearts to it. Open yours up. Please. Think about that message, think about it like you have never heard it before. Think you just committed a crime… one you have to pay for with your life, but just as the judge pronounces you guilty someone runs up and cries “no, I will pay the price, I’ll take their place.” How do you feel? Loved? Priceless? Joyful? Probably all of those. “There is therefore no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.” Romans 8:1 No condemnation, you have been set free! You aren’t condemned anymore, your sentence is lifted, your chains are broken! It’s hard to have joy, so that’s why you have to look. Don’t just curl up on the sofa and wait. You have a gold medal waiting for you. It’s right in front of you! But… you also have to fight for it. Hard. You have to get a sort of training. Dive into God’s word. Spend time meditating and praying in Him. It’s right there, you just have to grab on to it and keep holding on. Believe me, it’s worth it. Because once we find the joy of the Lord, no one can steal it from us.

I hope you enjoyed reading this and it helped you. Now, go off and put some more joy in your life.

Courage

(I got the inspiration for this from a book I read by Hannah Duggan.)

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