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What Steals Your Joy?
Do you know that there are close to 800 scripture references to the words joy, joyful, rejoice, and rejoicing? Check your favorite Bible search engine or the concordance in the back of your Bible. This particular scripture is one of my favorite because Paul explains that God is the source of our joy. I was reminded this past week on two different occasions that God is the only power worth considering. He is so holy and separate, and above His creation, that nothing that He created can compare to Him. Therefore, nothing in creation has enough power to even acknowledge.
And yet we do. We allow our “to do” list, the weather, illnesses, money, our possessions, how people treat us, the attitudes of those around us (be they big or small), what we don’t have, and an endless list of other things to have power over us, change who we are, influence how we treat others, and the worst, how we view God. And it steals our joy. So we walk around grumpy, angry, clinically depressed, addicted, sick, and my favorite Christian description, “burdened”. We even use our personality as an excuse to disobey this command. Jesus felt all those things. He wept. He was angry and annoyed and grieved and killed. But He did not allow those things to steal his joy (John 17:13)! And as His disciples being prayed for by the Great High Priest, neither should we.
The rest of the Philippians passage goes on to describe how our joy, thankfulness, and whatever we ponder will allow the peace of God to guard our hearts and minds. So that no matter what changes around us, we can still have joy in our salvation through Jesus Christ. This has been the focus of my journey with God during the past three years. I continue to practice “taking my thoughts captive” when I feel that I am ascribing power to anything else but God. Then I am learning to ask Him for what I need to have joy in the midst of my circumstances, and learning to receive what He gives me at that moment. It is usually something from His Word. He has changed what I think about so that He can change me, so that my joy may be complete. (John 16:24)
Peace and Joy to you today, and remember to smile!!
Questions: Read and pray the words from Philippians 4:4-9. What do you want from the promises listed in this passage? What do you want God to change and remove from you? What do think about that is not on His list? What do you want him to remove from your thinking so that you can be changed and have His peace and joy?
Love this reminder! Thanks for sending me to God’s Word to pray through what He wants for me. I now have noble and pure and excellent and praiseworthy things to think about today. And a reminder to be gentle, which is always good for me to hear and practice
). Thanks for your time putting this together, friend.
Love this reminder! Thanks for sending me to God’s Word to pray through what He wants for me. I now have noble and pure and excellent and praiseworthy things to think about today. And a reminder to be gentle, which is always good for me to hear and practice
. Thanks for your time putting this together, friend.
Wow. Good points. We’re more than just lists with or **without** check marks.
There’s a poem out there somewhere about “the dash”. You know, when we die, the most condensed summary is presented as a year of birth and year of death, with a dash in between. How tragic if my “dash” was just things and circumstances. How blessed if it is the Lord.