Joy of God's Presence

 

    When God is present, then everything is good.  It provides unmatched and un mistakable joy.  I am ending the joy series on the source of joy.  If you want to go back, I suggest starting a joy journal using all the methods to see God working in your life.  It will help your joy grow and get stronger.

    God pursues you to give you a relationship with Him.  In that relationship you can find comfort, purification, be invigorated, inspiration, encouragement, strength, serenity, and joy because He does not change.  He is always the same, so He is where you find your stability in this world.

    Make it your goal to pursue God in return.  He is going further than you will ever have to go.  He will open your eyes to the truth and deception in this world.  You are naturally selfish, impure, have untrue thoughts.  When you begin a relationship with God they are all revealed and you can see yourself for who you are.  He gives you the Holy Spirit to help you change to be more like Jesus.  There is joy found in this process.

    Be intentional in cultivating your relationship with God.  This is how joy is sustained and refreshes the soul on a daily basis.  It does require practice, but He is with you every step of the way.  This relationship is irreplaceable.  No one else will ever be able to give you what God does.  When you are in a right relationship with God, then He can help you have better relationships with people.  However, there is an order to it: God first then other people.

    You can never loose your connect with God.  If He feels far away, then it means you are allowing the world to influence you too much.  It is getting in between you and God.  Take a moment, pray, and figure out what is taking your attention off of God.  It takes a little work to live in God's presence because distractions are so easy to follow.  If you put in the effort, then your mindset will be altered to bring you joy.

    God is all the way in there with you in your trials, life events, troubles, and tribulations.  He knows exactly how you feel and why.  If you can remember that, then it doesn't have to be as difficult because you are not going through it alone.  You can be on the same page as God.  He is trying to make it better for you, but it does not mean that you don't have to go through it.  

    In time as you drop the bad habits, poor choices, and destructive behavior you will discover that some of your hardships go away.  It all starts with where you are today.  What is God telling you that will make your life better today?  Do you appreciate what God has given you today?  Are you contemplating God's nature?  Are you lovingly praising God?

    Communication is the key to all relationships.  God doesn't need to hear from you to know how you are doing, but He loves hearing it anyway.  It is amazing how pouring out your soul to Him will make you feel better too.  Don't let it be once or twice a day.  Talk to Him all day like you text your favorite person.  Be saturated by Him meaning stay in His Word, so you can hear Him in return.  He has you.  Will you trust Him to provide you with the joy you need today?

Psalm 16:9-11, John 16:19-24, Romans 12:9-16, Galatians 5:22-23, Philippians 4:4-7, & 1 Peter 1:8-9

Joy of Simplicity

 

    If you want joy in your life, then remove the clutter.  The fewer distractions, less mess, or the mentality of keeping up with the Jones the more you can enjoy what you do have.  The more you have the more life becomes complicated, heavy, and wearisome.  Simplicity allows you to relax, be carefree, and lively.

    Simplicity is not following a cookie cutter blueprint, but discovering your personalized path with God.  Anything that doesn't fit into that plan is just stuff that takes up your valuable time and attention away from God.  God is the source of joy, so the closer you are to Him the more joy you will have.  

    Clutter may may make you feel normal, but why do you want to feel normal?  Why not be different and live a spectacular life with God.  Living a life going through the motions just is not living.  It destroys you little by little everyday.  You live day by day not looking for God's blessings or feeling passion.  Push away normalcy and look for what is lovely, pure, true, and excellent that is in your life.

    Clean up your life to be able to appreciate all the good stuff you have.  You will discover that your life flows better.  You can enjoy the time you have.  You have the opportunity to become creative, grow, look for opportunities, and live our your purpose more successfully.  Everything else just eats up your energy.  

    There are different types of distraction or clutter in life: spiritual, emotional, mental, physical, financial, legal, and relational. Spiritual clutter is the deficiency of inner peace due to a lack of intimacy with God.  Emotional clutter is lack of forgiveness or meditating on negative thoughts or feelings that cause fatigue, boredom, fear, or anxiety.  Mental clutter is disorganized priorities that cause you to postpone what is important causing a lack of focus.  You need to manager your character to get priorities inline.  

    Physical clutter is being disorganized in life.  It is amazing how cleaning up will make you feel better.  Financial clutter is a personal messy economy: debt, weak to nonexistent financial plan, no budget, insubstantial insurance, or failure to work with your spouse.  Legal clutter is not addressing legal vulnerabilities, ignoring planning (home, death, or retirement), keeping up with paperwork, or not defending what God has given you.  

    Relational clutter is the most emotionally draining.  It has lingering affects that can last years.  They can be relationships with no closure, toxic, unequally yoked, business, or betrayal.  These will take your eyes off of God.  You have to work them out for yourself, even if you never get it completely worked out with the other person.

    One area of clutter is not good, but understandable because no one is perfect.  However, you add on multiple areas of clutter and it will really run you down and you will eventually burn out and crash.  They consume your mind and keep you from joy or productivity.  Declutter and focus on God.  You will enjoy relationships more, set achievable goals, solve problems easier, feel innovated, have clarity, and behave more wisely.

    Take the time to to spend with God, pray, meditate, and assess your life.  What do you really need?  Do your desires align with God's desires for you?  Work with God for your long-term goals.  Simplicity will bring harmony back into your life and that will produce joy.  Work a little everyday to declutter until you get to where you need to be.  Write out a declutter plan and mark through as you get rid of what is on the list.  It will feel satisfying.  

Psalm 131, Proverbs 14:30, 15:13-16, Ecclesiastes 4:1-6, Matthew 6:25-34, 1 Timothy 6:6-8, & Hebrew 13:5-7

Joy of Thanksgiving

 

    Gratitude is being thankful in the moment.  It doesn't last and is often times superficial.  It is real, but doesn't stand out over time.  It is a sign, gesture, or short comment to acknowledge when someone has been kind, polite, or given your something.  Thanksgiving makes it go deeper.  It is genuine and brings true joy to your life.

    When you turn routine gratitude into thanksgiving it turns into exceptional gratitude.  This is when you become intentional and consistent with having genuine thanksgiving every day.  This is when you take the hard times and find something to be grateful for.  It is when you have a difficult person in your life you can't get rid of and you choose to find ways to love them.

    Acts of thanksgiving is knowing that God's hand is in it and you are searching to see what He is doing.  It takes practice to always be looking for the small things that God is doing.  It is a gift to see Him at work, but can only be received if you are looking.  Having a heart of thanksgiving is a blessing.

    Thanksgiving that fills your with joy is knowing God's love, loving your body, loving your mind, enjoying weather, enjoying nature, freedom, having relationships, and more.  You can't hold in the thanksgiving.  You have to share it in small ways like a smile, hug, helping where needed, encouraging another, act of kindness, educating when needed, and more.  

    Transforming thanksgiving is making a habit of appreciating what God has given you, but also the people that He puts in your life.  Everyone has value.  If you value yourself the way God made you, then it will help you value other people.  When you value your relationships, then they can become stronger and bring more joy to your life.  You have to pour out gratitude to get more thanksgiving which produces more joy.

Psalm 95:1-5, 100, 107:1-3, 1 Corinthians 1:4-9, Philippians 4:4-7, & Colossians 3:16-19

Joy of Focus

 

    The way you think directs the way you feel.  How you feel influences the way you behave.  The accumulation of all of this makes up the conditions of your life.  That means that you life is based on your choices.  The good news is that you can focus and pray in on what you want and change things that you don't like.

    Focus helps you become a keen observer.  It gives you the ability to analyze the world around you.  Indirectly, this can bring you joy because you start seeing the changes in your life.  How you think and focus your attention will bring you joy or misery.

    Focus requires the learned skill set of mental discipline.  It requires continuous work.  If you slack off, then you will have to start over in some areas.  It is like working out: 30 days of not strength training and your muscles start to go back to their lazier state.  The same goes for mental discipline.  If you slack, then your emotions will start controlling you instead of you controlling your emotions.

    Mental discipline helps make goals and focus a reality.  Without it, you struggle with simple things and your moods become unpredictable even for you.  However, if you work it then you upgrade your life to more potential in every area.  

    Focus cultivates clarity.  Clarity makes the path clear in front of you for a distance.  It is what makes your goals achievable.  Focus also improves concentration.  Concentration helps you stay in the current moment to take care of the right now priority.  Multitasking is the enemy of concentration.  You can focus on one area and complete it quickly, write out what else needs to be done, prioritize, and then knock out the rest.  It may look like multitasking, but it isn't. It is concentration that allows you to get more done.

    Focus allows confidence.  Confidence is important because it enables to you accomplish your goals.  Without confidence you spend all your energy on the what if game and go back and forth through different scenarios never accomplishing anything useful.  Self-confidence enables you to be prepared, have winning moments, hold onto positive memories, and focus on the stages of progress instead of perfection.

    The final things that focus does for you is challenge you.  It pushes you to not be stagnant.  You set achievable goals, but that does not mean that the goals keep you in your comfort zone.  You do not avoid the uncomfortable to stay safe.  You set high standards for yourself and you work to make them happen.  This is how you find treasures in your life.  

Proverbs 16:7-9, Philippians 4:4-9, Colossians 3:1-4, Hebrews 12:1-4, & James 1:2-4

Joy of Finding Solutions

 

    If you want to discover the joy in finding solutions, you have to stop looking back.  There is value in looking forward and setting goals.  The past is for educational reference, but it can't be changed.  There is no reason to dwell there.  

    The way to find solutions in life is to utilize your emotions as a tool, but not the driver in your life.  It takes skill to properly deal with emotions in a rational way.  It starts with owning your negative emotions.  You have to take responsibility for your thoughts and where they lead you.  

    Next, stop blaming other people for your life not being the way you want it to be.  This leads you to emotional health.  This does not mean that other people did not contribute to the problem.  It just means that you are taking ownership in fixing it.  No matter what people do to you, you are responsible for how you are going to handle and respond to it.

    Then comes acknowledging negative feelings are there.  Some negative feelings can't be ignored.  You have to find a healthy way to deal with them.  That means looking for solutions instead of dwelling on them.  Find a way to starve negative feelings to hold onto your joy.  

    Acknowledge your anger, discouragement, hurt, and irritation, but do not let them consume you.  Look at the big picture and remember what you are working toward.  Ask yourself what your goals are?  What do you want the outcome to be?  What do you envision?  Are the negative emotions going to help you get there?  The point is to put the problem in perspective and find a healthy, joy filling solution.

    Final step to keep the joy in the midst of problems is to temporarily retreat.  Take a minute to collect yourself and get on solid footing with God.  This is not running away from your problems.  This is taking the time you need to handle them in a healthy manner.  It is taking a step back to see it from a different perspective before making it a bigger problem.

Jeremiah 33:1-5, 2 Corinthians 10:13-14, Ephesians 4:31-32, Philippians 4:4-7, & James 1:2-4

Joy of Discovery

 

    Change is scary.  However, if things never changes, then there would be no new discoveries.  Everyone would live status que for better or worse.  You would never meet new people.  You would never ger a new job, house, car, or anything.  You would just exist and that is scarier.

    You can find joy in discovery when you start digging into your relationship with God.  You discover your purpose in this life, where you belong, the right people for this season in life, and hidden gems that helps in life.  When you look to discover something new, then life can slow down.  You start removing things that don't really matter.  You get excited about what could be.

    At the same time, when you discover that you lost something that mattered, trying to find it can be challenging.  Some things you are never able to get back.  Sometimes when you pray, God says no.  You have to trust that it is for the overall good.  It may not feel good.  Disappointment can hurt, but that is where faith grows.  

    Focus on what God is giving you every day.  Let go of the loss.  None of it is an accident.  God's design is far better than any that we can come up on our own.  Let go of the past and you can discover passion in the unknown possibilities.  Don't put God in a box because it only makes your world smaller.  Pray and have faith that He can indeed move mountains, then look for it.

    Life doesn't need to be going through the motions, cynical, negative all the time, apathetic, or mediocre.  Life with God has times of rest, but it is meant to be exciting.  Let go of the business, distractions, and moving nonstop.  Instead pray, meditate, and focus on making what you have purpose.  

    Be the original you that God made you to be.  Find your place in this world, but remember home is in Heaven with Him.  Your place is where you can glorify God the best.  You do have a destiny and it is journeying through life as closely to God as you can.  This is where you invest your time and energy.  You are here to make the world a better place where you are unless you get in your own way.  

Psalm 16:9-11, 34:8-10, Romans 12:9-13, Galatians 5:22-23, Philippians 4:4-5, 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, & 1 Peter 1:8-9

Joy of Knowing God

 

    You can find joy in knowing God for infinite reasons, but one is that He challenges the way His children think.  He shows you our deficiencies, so you can see how much you need Him.  It is easy to be like everyone else.  It takes faith and work to be different.

    Human nature is strong.  It is something that you need to resist and fight everyday to live a joy filled life.  If you allow the negativity a foothold, then it will consume you.  It will eat away at your joy until it is gone.  

    Joy is a gift from God, so of course the closer you get to Him the more joy you can have.  Unlike the world, God doesn't have strings attached to His gifts.  You accept them or reject them.  It is all up to you.  It is great that you have the free will to choose every day how your day will be.

    When you choose to follow Jesus and live a Spirit filled life, then you choosing to change your human nature to a spiritual nature.  This transforms you in ways that only God can do.  It makes your more alive, passionate, and joyful.  Your past is your past.  It is what you do today that matters.  

    The joy of knowing God is learning to think like God.  He will always be a mystery in certain things, but He gave you the Bible so you can know Him, His clear boundaries, and His love for you.  The more you invest into Him, the more you will start thinking like Him.  You stop and think through things before reacting to life.  Your desire to live for Him become a priority.  

    God is the perfect creator.  He made you to be perfect, but you will never achieve that without Him.  The world has too much of a stronghold on you.  You live a joy filled life and then when you get to your eternal body, you can experience perfection for the first time.  You need God.  He doesn't need you.  He just wants you as His beloved creation.

    Your joy will become strong and true as you mature in your relationship with God.  You can trust that because God never lies to you.  He wants you to have a holy character that is strong and does not fear to really live.  When you do, then you reflect God to the world: true, noble, just, pure, lovely, and good.  

Psalm 16:9-11, Jeremiah 9:23-24, John 17:1-5, 2 Corinthians 2:14-16, Philippians 2:5-8, & 1 Peter 1:3-9