God says that no one can take our joy from us, but in our lives we can sometimes lose sight of it, especially when the enemy is hard at work and the enemy is ALWAYS hard at work. Joy is a choice and we often don’t choose it because sometimes we just don’t know what joy looks like anymore. In our circumstances and in the business of our lives we can forget how we look and feel when we’re experiencing true joy. I know that sometimes I can get carried away by all of the negative and difficult situations in my life that makes me forget about my gift of joy.
My pastor brought up this great idea of retraining ourselves to take spiritual selfies when we’re in the joy of the Lord. When we look back at our spiritual selfies and see the joy of the Lord in our lives, we definitely won’t want to be without joy anymore. Our spiritual selfies are reminders of all the good things the Lord has done in our lives and it gives us hope for all of the great things He’ll continue to do. Spiritual selfies will also remind us of what makes us passionate. Through my joy, I want to live passionately for God but I can’t do that if I live a life where I can’t even recognize when I’m joyful.
After reflecting, these are moments where I have experienced the joy of the Lord.
I have joy when I’m teaching and I just can’t wait to pour everything I can into my future students! The learning never stops!
I simply enjoy being in awe of God’s creation. Everywhere I look I see His beautiful creation, the world.
I LOVE to eat and I’m so thankful that I get to enjoy such yummy food! I’m even beginning to enjoy eating veggies and if you know me that’s a huge step because I thought I would never like veggies.
I simply enjoy being in awe of God’s creation. Everywhere I look I see His beautiful creation, the world.
Wow, I wasn’t even sure if I was going to have a lot to share, but now that my mind is going, there’s just too much to share. God really has been so good and faithful to me. I look forward to being more in the presence of His joy and taking more spiritual selfies as evidence!
Please, take time to reflect on some of your moments of joy too. I pray that your moments of joy are just as beautiful as mine and I hope that you can join me on this journey of taking spiritual selfies!
God never said, “Follow me and life will be easy.” In fact, we will experience many disappointments because in life things won’t always go the way we want it to. The word “disappointment” always sounded like a horrible thing to me, but it’s actually a healthy response to life when things happen out of our control. Our disappointments ultimately reveal the expectations that we had of something or someone and lately, I had still been feeling disappointed about my break up.
One afternoon I was sitting in class waiting for the professor to begin and he started the class with a devotion. It was a story about a little girl who dropped her coins inside of a vase and in her attempt to get them out she got her hand stuck. She was crying hysterically to her mother, but her mother knew that the solution was simple. Her mother asked her to open her fist and make her hand really slim so that it would slide out. The little girl cried and protested that she wanted her coins, she refused to let go of them.
“Wow, if the little girl only trusted her mom and let go she would be free and have her coins,” was the first thing I thought. Suddenly, it hit me, that little girl was me! I was holding onto something that would keep me from being free and from fully stepping into the great things that God was calling me to. This story was stuck on my mind for a couple of days as I continued to ponder the idea of letting go. On Sunday morning I went to church with a heavy heart and as they were worshiping I kept thinking, “God, can I really let go? How can I let go?” The worship ended and we sat down waiting for the message and to my surprise it was about joy.
John 16: 20-24 “Truly, truly, I say to you, that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will grieve, but your grief will be turned into joy. Whenever a woman is in labor she has pain, because her hour has come; but when she gives birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy that a child has been born into the world. Therefore you too have grief now; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you. In that day you will not question Me about anything. Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you. Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full.”
Jesus was saying that in the face of everything falling apart we would still have joy and no one would be able to take it away. God doesn’t deny the fact that there will be sorrow, but one day we will know joy and all the pain we felt would be worth it. When we go through hardships we also have the opportunity to show God’s glory and our sorrow and pain will enhance the depth of our joy as a believer. Even though it hurts, God is making our roots go deeper so we can be stronger against the wind.
I felt as though the message was speaking right to me and I knew that I was going to be okay. At the end of the message the pastor mentioned that he sensed God was calling many of us into big things and he asked that anyone who wanted to live in joy to come to the front of the stage for prayer. I went up to the stage and the pastor had us repeat, “I am not God’s disappointment, I am God’s joy.” The pastor then said, “Let go of your disappointment so that you can have joy.”I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, my eyes began to water and I had a huge smile on my face, God was answering me right there. I love hugs and I felt as though God was hugging me at that very moment saying, “You can let go.”
What is something you have been disappointed about, are you ready to let it go?
When will you know joy and what is it going to take for you to realize you’re not in control of your circumstances?
At the beginning of the summer I entered into a relationship that was so promising and beautiful. Our belief, values, and hearts seemed to be on the same page and I couldn’t believe how much we were “clicking” together. This guy boldly pursued me and ultimately asked me to be his girlfriend, how lucky was I? Love is scary and can be risky, but he was asking me to step into a God honoring relationship with him, so of course I said yes.
After three short months my boyfriend confronted me about our relationship and we ended up breaking up. It crushed me. The first week after the break up was pretty ugly. I was trying to process my thoughts and pull myself together, but I was not being God honoring with my life at all. I would wake up early, lay in bed crying until 12 or 2 in the afternoon, wake up, eat one tiny meal, sit quietly in my room, and go to sleep and then repeat everything again the following day. When I was going through this it didn’t seem so bad, but now it seems slightly crazy of me and I’m quite embarrassed about it. Nonetheless, I survived those first couple of weeks through God’s gentle comfort and strength and I can’t forget my awesome support team, my family and friends!
The funny thing is, at the beginning of the summer I had prayed that God would show me what it meant to have His joy and by the end of the summer He answered me. I didn’t think that God would answer this prayer in such a heart wrenching way, but He did. Through this uncontrollable circumstance, God was tugging my heart closer to Him and putting a deep desire to truly know and have His joy. Although the relationship with this man ended I can honestly say that I have grown and learned a lot simply from loving and being loved by him for a season of our lives. The beginning of my joy began in the midst of heartbreak, but I believe God had me right where he wanted me, broken.
James 1:2-4 “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
