Faithful Fridays ~ Fighting for Joy.

Hi, there!  :)  Friday has rolled back around again!  I'm really starting to wonder if Disney jinxed America when it put out the movie Frozen.  It was in the 60's last Saturday, and the very next day, Sunday, we had a big ice and snow storm and our power went out for a couple of days!  And in the south, too!  Craziness.  I'm ready for spring!  :)


Faithful Fridays is a weekly linky party hosted on my blog. I made it so that Christians could have one special day out of the week (Friday) to share something from their Christian walk on their blog. If you'd like to participate, write your post, grab the button from the Faithful Fridays page on my blog (so that it will link back here), and come link up at the bottom of this post! :)
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Joy.  It's a funny thing.  I don't think it's the same thing as happiness.  No, joy is more of the kind of thing that's deep, the thing that you have even when times are tough.
But here's the thing:  I used to think that joy just kind of came naturally when you had Jesus, even during hard times and struggles.  But I've discovered that it's something that you sometimes have to fight for.
It doesn't always come easy.  Because obviously, when something hard hits and my emotions are running wild, my first instinct is not to have joy, is it?  It doesn't just happen.  We have to choose it. 

"A sound mind makes for a robust body, but runaway emotions corrode the bones." -Proverbs 14:30 

And I know you've probably heard that quite a bit before--that happiness is a choice.  But it's not just that.  Joy is something that you choose to seek out and fight for.  You do that by seeking Jesus, by going through His word and His promises to you and realizing that you have reason to have joy!   

You find joy by stepping outside of yourself, even in your hard times, and loving others. 
Have you ever spent time at a nursing home, or maybe with some little kids, or really just helping out anyone that can't repay you?  It tends to bring joy.  There's just something about not putting yourself first that makes you realize that it's not all about you!  And that really puts things into perspective. 

 
One time I met this lady who worked at Walmart and whose name was Joy.  I said hi and told her my name was also Joy, and she told me what "joy" really is:
J - esus first O - thers second Y - ourself last.  
And that is SO true!  When we start putting things in the right order and fighting for our joy, we start finding it--first by seeking Jesus and His love and what it means for us; bringing it all to Him and laying it down at His feet, and letting our minds rest in Him, letting His peace come cover us.

"So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death.  But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace." -Romans 8:6

 And then by taking a step forward, putting ourselves aside, and extending that love to others without expecting anything in return.  
 The Bible has a lot to say about joy.  The big things that stick out to me are that one, the Bible acknowledges in so many ways that joy is something that you usually have to choose, and often have to fight for.  

"Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.  For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.  So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing." -James 1:2-4

"A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones." -Proverbs 17:22

The way the Bible talks about joy shows us that it's a choice--because it tells us that yes, when we follow Jesus, and when we simply live life, we will face troubles and trials and hardships.  But it's up to US to make the best out of them and to choose to fight for joy and a cheerful heart in the middle of that!  And maybe that sounds a little cliche, but if you want to have joy, it's the truth.  Proverbs is filled with words of wisdom and advice from one of the wisest men ever--because God gave him that wisdom.  And it tells us that a cheerful heart is good medicine.  I don't know about you, but that sounds an awful lot to me like it's something we choose to do or not do, to have or not to have.  You can choose to let your default feelings rule you, or fight for joy despite your feelings.  And choosing to seek out joy seems to be the better option--it draws us closer to Jesus, makes us and those around us happier, and is good for our bodies--a crushed spirit dries up the bones and runaway emotions corrode the bones.  

The Bible also gives us tons of verses of hope, verses of reasons for us to have that joy in Jesus.  

"The righteous person faces many troubles, but the Lord comes to the rescue each time." -Psalms 34:19
"Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy." -Psalm 126:5 "No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us." -Romans 8:37
"Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away.  Each time he said, 'My grace is all you need.  My power works best in weakness.'  So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.  That's why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ.  For when I am weak, then I am strong." -2 Corintians 12:8-10
"What shall we say about such wonderful things as these?  If God is for us, who can ever be against us?  Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won't he also give us everything else?  Who then will condemn us?  No one--for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God's right hand, pleading for us.  Can anything ever separate us from Christ's love?  Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death?  And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love.  Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears today nor our worries about tomorrow--not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love.  No power in the sky above or in the earth below--indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:31-32, 34-35, 38-39

"You love him even though you have never seen him.  Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy.  The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls." -1 Peter 1:8-9 There it is.  When we trust Jesus and stop worrying, when we give it up to Him and lay it all out before Him, we can get that joy.  We can find it and fight for it, because we have this assurance.  I love it.  
"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles.  And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.  For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." -Hebrews 12:1-2 ************************************************************************* God bless you guys and have a fantastic weekend!  :)

Faithful Fridays ~ Life is Not a Dress Rehearsal.

Helllooo, everyone!  I hope you've had a great week so far!  :)




Faithful Fridays is a weekly linky party hosted on my blog. I made it so that Christians could have one special day out of the week (Friday) to share something from their Christian walk on their blog. If you'd like to participate, write your post, grab the button from the Faithful Fridays page on my blog (so that it will link back here), and come link up at the bottom of this post! :)

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You know how sometimes, we get so caught up in our routines, and life gets so crazy, that it actually gets in the way of...well...life?  
It's like we get so busy trying to make life perfect that we stop living it.  We plan and plan and we forget to take advantage of what's lying right before us.  We get so busy planning what we want to do for our career that we forget to pursue the interests and passions God has given us.  We get so busy trying to figure out how to do our hair and what to wear for that event that it ends up being more stressful than enjoyable, like it was planned to be.  We get so busy trying to figure out how we're going to get to Bible study that we forget to love those right in front of us in that moment.  Before we know it, so many days have passed, and yet we aren't really living life the way Jesus came to give it. 

"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." -John 10:10

Jesus' words to us--words about following Him, loving and forgiving others, giving of ourselves, and being a servant--weren't just words.  They weren't just friendly suggestions.  They weren't even good moral lessons.  They were a new way to live life; the best way!  And shouldn't Jesus know what abundant life really is?  He is the embodiment of it, after all, the Son of God, who created life!  

"Jesus answered, 'I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me." -John 14:6

Jesus came to give us life, and to show us a new way, the best way, to live it.  His way is sort of a reverse economy kind of thing--other people tell us, and we tell ourselves, that to have more means to be happy.  That to serve yourself means to be satisfied.  That to be in a perfectly still place with no problems or conflicts is the way to have peace.  That to forgive is to lose.  That to have a boyfriend or girlfriend is to be content.  That to do what you feel like is freedom.  That to follow God is to be a slave, tied down to rules and regulations.
But have you ever looked at someone who should have it all?
I'm thinking about people like Elvis.  
And Whitney Houston.
Miley Cyrus.  
People that should be perfectly happy--they have everything they need and want, and should they want anything else, they have plenty of money to get it.  They could probably date any person they wanted--that alone should make them happy, right?  They serve themselves, and they have tons of other people serving them, too.  People all over the world want to meet them and even hold them up as idols.  
And yet, they end up in these dark places, where they turn to drugs, alcohol, and other things to fill up the empty spaces.  They're never satisfied, they're always searching.  

It's not just the famous celebrities we all know.  It's the people around us.  Teenage girls, girls I know, are constantly thirsting after more attention, more love, more, more, more in their life to fill it up.  Fathers who think working and making money to have big houses and big vacations end up getting obsessed with work and being successful and never being satisfied, either.  
Guys, we're not preparing for life; we're LIVING it.  Right now.  As you're reading this.  And life is short.  So, so short.  Shorter than we realize.  It flies by.  Did you know that there are only 940 Saturdays in between the time you're born and you go to college?  These days that we just let slip away into the wind are going to add up to weeks and months and years, and before we know it, we'll be closer to eternity than we ever realized.  
We spend so much time in this world concentrating on just getting by--so much time is spent on our routines and earthly stuff.  But our purpose, the reason we were put on this earth, was not to just get by and make the most out of the little situations we were placed in.  We were made for so much more than that.  We were made to enjoy a living, breathing, active, intimate relationship of worship and love with our Creator, with Jesus.  God wanted that so very much when He made us. 

 
And when we realize that and start living it out, we find out what true joy is.  We find out what true peace is.  We find out what freedom really means, and what really happens when we forgive.  
When we step outside of ourselves, surrender our lives to Jesus, and start following Him, we start soaking up His love and finding that true joy.  When we lean on and trust Him during our struggles, we find out what true, mind-blowing peace really is.  

When we give our life to Jesus, when we become His, we realize that true freedom is found in Him--we find out that we don't have to worry about what others think of us, or if we're making ourselves happy.  Jesus brings us life, and we're free to struggle in the circle of His love, grace, and forgiveness.  

"So if the Son sets you free, you are free indeed." -John 8:36

When we forgive someone, we find out that that has set us free from grudges and hurt and pain that's been locked up inside us--we're free to go and live our lives in peace!
And when we stop trying to get everyone to serve us, and we humbly, lovingly serve others, like Jesus did, we find out what His love for us really means.

"For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many." -Mark 10:45
Maybe it sounds a little crazy.  Maybe it doesn't make sense.  But it works.  This is how I want to live life.  Not by being wrapped up in my own stuff.  But by following Jesus, recklessly, radically, truly.  Because He is life.  
And when this life--which is just a short little puff of breath in comparison to eternity--is over, I want the things I did in it to matter.  
This life is not a dress rehearsal.  It's the real deal.  And I want mine to be all about Jesus, living in His love and living it out to others, because that's all that matters.  

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God bless you guys, and have a wonderful weekend!  Thank you so much to those of you who participate in Faithful Fridays each week--I really appreciate it and love reading your posts!  :)
Joy :)