Established Joy

    To establish joy is to know God's plan for your life.  You have to understand how He wants to be with you and see you through life's problems.  He allows trials to reveal truths about yourself to you.  He does not take pleasure in your pain or suffering.  It is Satan that test you, but again God allows it so that you have the opportunity to resist and stay close to Him.

    God is here for you to fill in all the holes in your life that keep you from feeling complete.  This is the grace of God/  When you have His salvation, then you can become confident because He has given you everything in life that you need to succeed on your path with Him.  

    Salvation is not something you can lose.  If you doubt your salvation, then maybe you need to go to God and make things right.  Declare your faith and love to Him and it will be settled.  If you sin, then repent right away and you never have to think about it again.

    Spiritual gifts are tools to help you maintain your joy that comes from God.  Spiritual gifts enhance your ability to love, joy, peace, goodness, and kindness.  They can start to overflow and you can be a fountain of God's grace.  The only thing that will drain the fountain is allowing sin in your life and not getting rid of it.  You don't lose your salvation or spiritual gifts, but you do lose the ability to maintain the constant flow of the power of salvation.

    Do not allow feelings to overshadow the grace that God has given you or it will overshadow your true joy in life.  You can overcome anything negative or hurtful in life when you embrace the truth of God (who God is).  Unbelief and rebelling against God will clog any real joy that you could be experiencing in life.  

    Established joy is immoveable.  It gives you the power to see your prayers being answered and still stay humble.  It enables you to be spiritually triumphant.  You can be realistic even in suffering and maintain your joy.  You can sense when other people are praying for you which only enhances your joy.

    Pray for other people everyday.  Try to be specific and avoid generic prayers like keep so and so safe.  Pray for their needs and specific protection.  Pray from a place of love based on your relationship with that person.  Look past your circumstances, so that you can put your relationships first.  

    Focusing on the situation is the quickest way to suffocate or stop prayers.  Instead find the privilege that comes from suffering.  You can loss everything, but if you have salvation then you have the one eternal thing that can never be taken away.  You can still get things back in life, but if you lose out on salvation, then you never get that opportunity back again.  Rejoice in how good God is, even when life is bad.

    Rejoice in the fact that you are not alone.  Even if you do not have anyone in your life, you have Him.  He will provide the right people when you need them most.  To have established joy you need to understand that God is in control and He is working for the good of His people.  

    Find joy in knowing that nothing can separate us from His love.  You are blessed with great mercy.  You are a living hope.  You have an imperishable inheritance.  You are protected.  You are living proof of faith when you are tested by fire to honor and rejoice in God.  You are God's claimed promise.  This truth requires change from you.  You have to follow Jesus to have this and it all starts with being captivated by God's Word.

Psalm 21:3-7, Luke 6:20-23, Philippians 4:1-9, 1 Peter 1: 3-9. & James 1:2-4