Keep Your Joy

“Joy is gone from our hearts; our dancing has turned to mourning.”
‭‭Lamentations‬ ‭5:15‬ ‭NIV‬‬

I was reading a devotional about losing your joy. I’m not talking about losing your happiness. Happiness comes and goes depending on your circumstances. I am talking about losing something that we need to keep...our joy.

The devotional said that joy is the easiest thing to lose. We can lose our joy in a traffic jam or bad news or an argument with someone or a unexpected bill or stress at work. The enemy wants us to lose our joy. Because when we lose our joy, the world looks at us and decides that the Christian life does not work. The world does not decide against our testimony when bad things happen to us. The world writes us off when we have no joy in the midst of our circumstances.

What should we do about this? Because deep down, we want to be different. We want our lives to be a testimony to a lost world. Ask God to give it back.

“Restore to me the joy of Your salvation And sustain me with a willing spirit.”
‭‭Psalms‬ ‭51:12‬ ‭NASB‬‬

I don’t know about you but I struggle to keep my joy. When I handle this in the right way, I outright ask God to restore my joy. You know what happens, he gives it back...every single time. Notice that I did not ask him to change my circumstances. Just my joy in the midst of those circumstances.

When Mark and I aren’t getting along and I am despondent over this, I ask God to restore the joy in our marriage. He does his every single time because God is able to do this and wants to do this.

When I ask God to restore my joy when my job stresses me out, he does this. Realize that this is a daily, minute by minute thing. The request for joy is not one that lasts and we never have to ask again. God wants us talking to him all day long.

When the death of 3 precious people in our lives occurred last year, our joy was jolted. But when I think of them now, I am so excited that they are with Jesus, dancing around with no suffering. I think my dad is having the best time with that twinkle in in eye.

Don’t believe that some people are just meant to be joyful while you are not. This is a lie from the enemy. Facebook is not a barometer of how joyful someone is. Be careful when you scroll the Facebook news. You will wrongly think that everyone is joyful and you are not.

Ask him over and over again to restore your joy. Strive to become a joyful Christian. This is not a suggestion. God says,
“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!”
‭‭Philippians‬ ‭4:4‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Do Not Lean on Your Understanding

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.”

‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭3:5‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Good grief...if you flip this verse, the truth pierces you.

“Do not lean on your own understanding...

You may not have come to a point in your life when your understanding was not enough. There are people that I know that think they have life figured out. I can just tell that they think that. They have an answer for everything.

I googled this question, “Why are some things hard to understand?” This guy named Serg Zhelezniak says,

“Certain subjects be it number theory, astrophysics, or advanced mechanics requires more than a brief encounter—it requires countless hours of persistence, determination, and creativity. In order to comprehend the innate intricacy of landing a probe on Mars.

Yes, many topics are far too convoluted and intricate to be understood in a few seconds or hours. They require more time, more devotion, more effort. But the payoff is one of the greatest pleasures of life: understanding.”

He is one of those guys I am talking about that really thinks he can figure out everything if he persists.

However, after living for so many years, things have gotten harder to figure out. My brain either got smaller or I am realizing that is beyond my understanding. I don’t have all the answers.

The older I get, it seems that I understand less and less. The world seems crazier. Why is someone needing to buy a gun and start shooting people? 

I used to be able to set goals and see where I am going in life. Now that I’m retired, I am perplexing about what goals to set.

Which brings me to the most wonderful, comforting part of the verse.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding.”

This is the most wonderful discovery...when my understanding fails me, it’s okay. I don’t have to stress or panic or be fearful.

When I realize how small and limited my mind is and tell God I can’t understand this, he says, “Good, can you just trust me?”

Someone needs to tell Serg that he will come to a point where he can’t figure out stuff.

Please God Through Faith and Not Fear

“Without faith no one can please God. Whoever comes to God must believe that he is real and that he rewards those who sincerely try to find him.”
‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭11:6‬ ‭ERV‬‬

This is one of the most powerful verses that can change your thinking about life. There have been periods of darkness in my life when fear and worry dominated my thoughts, especially about 3 AM. I know that the reason my thoughts were more troublesome at that time, Satan knows that I am halfway awake and this is a great time for him to lie to me.

Also, there are trigger points that can remind me of a bad time in the past. Satan will catch me off guard and lie to me and tell me that God is not powerful enough to help me. One of the most awesome things God has helped me to do is to pray about the eternal and not the temporary. Notice that I said, “God helped me to do this.” In my own strength, I cannot change.

“So we think about what we cannot see, not what we see. What we see lasts only a short time, and what we cannot see will last forever.”
‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭4:18‬ ‭ERV‬‬

If we think about only what we can see and understand and control, we think that we can handle life on our own. That’s where the fear comes in. We seem unable to solve all of our problems and all of our families’ problems. We spiral into depression and fear about the future.

Back to the original verse, “Without faith no one can please God.” When I realized the weight of this verse, I knew that I can never come close to pleasing God with fear. Only faith can please God! “Whoever comes to God must believe that he is real and that he rewards those who sincerely try to find him.”

I try to grab my thanksgiving journal when the fears about the future pop in at 3:00 AM. He is deeply in love with each of us and wants to reward us. He wants to save us. The thanksgiving journal reminds me of all the times he has saved me.

“But Moses answered, “Don’t be afraid! Don’t run away! Stand where you are and watch the Lord save you today. You will never see these Egyptians again.”
‭‭Exodus‬ ‭14:13‬ ‭ERV‬‬

Never Ever Get Tired of Doing Good

“Brothers and sisters, never get tired of doing good.”
‭‭2 Thessalonians‬ ‭3:13‬ ‭ERV‬‬

Guess what I had my last week before retiring ...a “chicken biscuit” day! If you don’t what that is, my son sometimes buys an extra chicken biscuit and gives one away to a homeless person on the way to work. He just rolls down his window and hands it out at a red light.

Every day on my way to work, I pass by a girl that is waiting at a bus stop on Hulen Street. She is there at exactly 6:55 AM. She is dressed in an outfit that one might wear to a fast food restaurant. She always, always looks down and tries to be invisible. I have passed her for several years. I have imagined how I could bless her. Since Friday was my last day, I was running out of time.

I have tried to time the stop so I could talk to her when the light was red. I have tried turning down the street next to her but cars turned in as well behind me. She would get on the bus.

I saw her at the bus stop and turned into the street and did a u-turn. I yelled out the window, “Hey!” She turned and looked. I said, “Please come over here.” She had courage to run over to a total stranger and take a chance of missing her bus. But she did. I told her that I pass her everyday and pray for her. She smiled so big. She said, “My name is Joanna.” I told her my name was Pat. I gave her some money and told her to spend on whatever she needed.

How can we encourage each other to not be weary in doing good? I looked up ideas of things to have in my car to give away when I see a needy person. The only thing that would stop me is courage to do this

The Narrow Way

““You can enter true life only through the narrow gate. The gate to hell is very wide, and there is plenty of room on the road that leads there. Many people go that way. But the gate that opens the way to true life is narrow. And the road that leads there is hard to follow. Only a few people find it.”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭7:13-14‬ ‭ERV‬‬

I know you have read this many times. But read it slowly today and let the words permeate your mind. This road is not the popular or well chosen road. You will walk the opposite way of the world, definitely not the American road. If everything in your life looks likes the American way, stop and think, “Is there a problem with this?” 

We get so busy in life that we honestly do not have time to search for the narrow way. It will involve a sacrifice of time and maybe sleep and even food(if you want to fast to hear from the Lord). 

Everything I just mentioned is NOT something we want to give up...sleep, food and especially give up our time. We want to be in charge of those areas. But the rewards are incomparable! 

Let us find accountability to seek the narrow way. Let us have a desire to look for the narrow road. Let us have glimpses of the rewards that awaits us when we search for the narrow and not the wide, easy road. 

Jesus, you love us so much, you don’t water down your word and make it more palatable. Jesus, you say to follow you it involves everything we’ve got. But when we practice deferred rewards, we inherit the kingdom.  We don’t get all the promises now, but every single promise will be in our future! 

What Are Your Devoted Things?

“Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow; for thus says the Lord, God of Israel, "There are devoted things in your midst, O Israel. You cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the devoted things from among you."”

‭‭Joshua‬ ‭7:13‬ ‭ESV‬‬

This is a familiar story(If it’s not a familiar story, spend time in the Old Testament. Incredible stories are found hidden in those pages.)

Joshua had led the children of Israel in a resounding defeat of Jericho by walking around the city walls 7 times and the walls collapsed. Their fame grew within the enemies in the Promise Land. Next on the list was Ai.

“”Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is near Beth-aven, east of Bethel, and said to them, "Go up and spy out the land." And the men went up and spied out Ai.”

‭‭Joshua‬ ‭7:2‬ ‭ESV‬‬

The men came back and reported that they only needed about 3,000 men and not the whole army. This should have been an easy defeat. But much to their surprise, the men of Ai soundly defeated them! What happened?

One of the members of the Israelite army, Achan, saw treasures of the of Jericho and stole them and hid them in his tent. God had specifically said,

“Remember, we must destroy everything else. Don’t take anything. If you take anything and bring it into our camp, you yourselves will be destroyed, and you will cause trouble for the rest of our people.”

‭‭Joshua‬ ‭6:18‬ ‭ERV‬‬

Keep this in mind. The next time they attacked Ai,

“You will do to Ai and its king the same thing you did to Jericho and its king. Only this time you can take all the wealth and animals and keep it for yourselves. You will share the wealth with your people.””

‭‭Joshua‬ ‭8:2‬ ‭ERV‬‬

God does not say to turn away from all the good things here in earth. This story is not leading us to deny ourselves of all things that he provides. But when the world flashes money, entertainment, even food and tells us to make these our “devoted things” and our source of happiness, be careful. Only the Lord, and him alone, will be our source of joy and strength and wisdom. 

I love that the Lord knows that we are weak and we need his help to fight our battles.

That's how we fight our battles

This is how I fight my battles

This is how I fight my battles

This is how I fight my battles

This is how I fight my battles

It may look like I'm surrounded

But I'm surrounded by You

It may look like I'm surrounded

But I'm surrounded by You

It may look like I'm surrounded

But I'm surrounded by You!

Lord, I’m surrounded by enemies to the right and to the left. But these battles are won when I lay aside the sin that so easily entangles me.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,”

‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭12:1‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Make a list of the “devoted things” that have been kept hidden in our tents. Get rid of these things that are nothing but cheap substitutes for the real treasures. There are battles ready to be won! Even better, we will gather up the crowns of our enemies and lay them at the feet of our Savior one day.

Are You Living With Truth or Lies?

“Brothers and sisters, continue to think about what is good and worthy of praise. Think about what is true and honorable and right and pure and beautiful and respected.”

‭‭Philippians‬ ‭4:8‬ ‭ERV‬‬

Our class is studying a series of lessons on building our core...physical core, emotional core, mental core and spiritual core. 

Last Sunday, we studied how to build our mental core. I found that to be the hardest thing of all four things to strengthen. We can work on our spiritual core by reading our Bible and praying to God with regularity. We can strengthen our physical core by lifting weights, doing aerobic exercises and work on our flexibility. We can “grit our teeth” and be mindful of our emotions...sadness, anger, fear, and happiness. 

But somehow to make progress in the area of the mind takes an enormous discipline. Everything goes into our mind! 

“So we must listen very carefully to the truth we have heard, or we may drift away from it.”

‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭2:1‬ ‭NLT‬‬

I was noticing this week that all of us struggle with what is truth. For example, our jealously sometimes towards others are based on a lack of knowledge. Have you ever look at someone’s life and think that they have a “perfect life?” But later on you find out that this person has some problems that you would not want to trade with. A good rule of thumb is to not be jealous of someone’s life. No point in this, whatsoever.

Another example of not knowing truth is not realizing the unbelievable poverty that some are facing in most of the world. We have pity parties about finances when there is something we desire and can’t buy it right now. But the item is not even on the mind of most of the world. If the truth smacked you in the face, you would give more of your time or money or prayer to the more than 10% of the world that is living on less than $2 a day. That is more like closing our eyes to the truth. 

Not knowing truth means that most Christians do not understand what it means to follow Jesus. Stop and think. Do we often get mad at God because we are suffering? We are bitter because we have problems. We want life to be about us.  

“Jesus continued to say to all of them, “Any of you who want to be my follower must stop thinking about yourself and what you want. You must be willing to carry the cross that is given to you every day for following me.”

‭‭Luke‬ ‭9:23‬ ‭ERV‬‬

This week, I have been intentional about what truth/lies enter in my mind. It’s hard work! So I have asked the Lord to reveal what is a lie that I am believing about my life. Oh my goodness! It’s shocking, the bald-faced lies that I allow to sit around in my mind. These lies need to be cleaned out and replaced with truth. 

“So stand strong with the belt of truth tied around your waist.”

‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭6:14‬a ERV‬‬

To build a strong core of truth in our mind will impact the core of everything else. 

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’”

‭‭Mark‬ ‭12:30‬ ‭ERV‬‬

Check your belt tied around your waist. Is it truth or a bunch of lies that you are wearing around?