“Finding the Joy That God Commands and Provides”

“Finding the Joy That God Commands and Provides”

Joy (part 1)

“Joy” is my word for the year.  This is the first year I’ve chosen a word of the year, and I must say that it’s proving to be a great help.  I am a person that still believes in New Year’s resolutions.  I know there is a lot of cynicism about such resolutions.  Many would say that they are useless because they are never kept.  And I get that.  But as a Christ-follower, my life is of necessity filled with resolutions – to bring by life more in line with what God has for me.  I shared this with a friend recently and he introduced me to the idea of, rather that writing out multiple resolutions with declarative statements, choosing one word that declared a pursuit.  It didn’t take me long to land on the word “joy”.

I have struggled with joy over the years, and it has truly been that, a struggle.  I strongly desire to have more joy in my life and I have been frustrated at often coming up short.  But I must say that I am now more hopeful as I have had a sustained focus on joy this year which is driving me to understand how God can produce joy in me.

Here is what I know.

·         God commands me to have joy.

                        Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. (Philippians 4:4)

·         God provides for what He commands.          

for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. (Philippians 2:13)

·         The Holy Spirit brings joy to me as a gift.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, (Galatians 5:22)

·         The work of the Holy Spirit is nourished as I take hold of God’s truth.

 [10] “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, [11] so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. (Isaiah 55:10-11)

       

·         Joy can to robbed from me by wrong thinking.

I am currently teaching an Equip class on joy and in the next 2 blogs will share some of that content with you.  It basically will come down to this – the direction our thinking takes.  So, next week I will simply present some ways that we should think in order to nourish joy, and the following week I will note ways that we allow our joy to be stolen from us.

Joy is a gift from God that He desires for all of His children to enjoy.  Is it time for you to choose a word?