A Steady Outlook: Joy

By Carin LeRoy –

What is the difference between happiness and joy? We think the meaning would be the same, but there is a distinction. Theologians define happiness as a temporal fleeting emotion, while joy is something that goes deeper. Many people can be tossed around in life depending on their circumstance–having gladness in the good times, but miserable in the difficult. Their emotions vacillate according to their situation.

Even though life brings its high and low moments, as believers we can have a steady grasp and outlook on life because we walk with God through them.

Scripture talks about joy. It is listed as a fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5, and we are admonished to “be joyful always” (I Thes. 5:16 NIV). When God tells us to have joy, it’s not perpetual happiness, because life isn’t always pleasant. It’s an inner steadiness and outlook on life no matter what circumstance comes our way. It’s a strength that comes from our knowledge of who we are in Christ and how He has blessed us. We have an awareness that God is in control and at work in our lives. Joy comes as we trust in God and His ability to accomplish His will for us.

Scripture gives many examples of what brings joy:
• God himself (Psalm 4:6,7)
• Our salvation (Isaiah 44:23)
• God’s unfailing love (Psalm 90:14)
• God’s presence (Psalm 21:6)
• Our eternal blessings (Proverbs 10:28)
• A timely word (Proverbs 15:23)
• A Cheerful look (Psalm 15:30)
• Music (Psalm 92:1-4)

These are only a few examples, but joy can be with us daily. Psalm 126: 5,6 says, ” Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy. He who goes out weeping carrying seeds to sow will return with songs of joy carrying sheaves with him.” Life’s tears will bring joy. Hard times are not happy times, but we get through them if we learn where the source of our joy comes. It is in God. Remember God’s blessings, trust in His sovereignty and know He is still at work in your life. Let’s have joy be the outlook of our soul.

QUOTE: We would never learn to be brave and patient, if there were only joy in the world – Helen Keller.

PRAYER: Lord thank You that you are a sovereign God and You are always working out Your purposes for my life. Thank You for the many ways You have blessed me. Give me a joyful heart that is willing to trust You through the good times and the bad.

A New You

By Cheri Cowell –

With all the talk at the beginning of the year of diet plans and exercising our way to a “new you,” it makes me think of the “new you” promised us in the Bible. We talked often in my childhood home of what heaven was going to be like. We spoke of the people we loved who had gone before us and what fun they must be having in the perfect place God had prepared for them. We just knew that my great-grandmother, Mumsey, was in a perfectly outfitted kitchen, baking heavenly treats for the heavenly host. We knew my grandfather was in the woodshop building beautiful pieces of furniture for the many altars in heaven. I now appreciate the gift my parents gave me in providing those happy discussions of heaven. My father was a diabetic and took insulin shots three times daily from the age of nine. He is now in heaven and I am grateful he no longer suffers that pain because he has a new body. One day I know I will be with him again and will hug him with my new body. What a gift that assurance is. Do you need to be reassured today of that hope?

In today’s Scripture, Paul contrasts our earthly bodies (tents) with our resurrection bodies (eternal house in heaven- heavenly dwelling). Our earthly bodies make us groan, but when we die we will not be naked (without a body). We will have new bodies perfectly suited for an eternal life with Christ. What a hope! What a promise!

PRAYER: I praise You, God, for Your promise of a new life with a new body when I die and go to live with You. Thank You for the reassurance that those I love are no longer suffering in their earthly bodies; help me stay focused on that promise, that hope, when this body makes me groan.

BIBLE VERSE: “For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, inasmuch as we, having put it on, will not be found naked. For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life. Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge” (2 Corinthians 5:1-5 NASB).

Epic

by Elaine James –

“The last Harry Potter movie was epic,” my 16-year-old daughter blurted out. Almost daily I hear someone saying the word “epic.” I have noticed young people like using the word “epic” quite often. Daily we have stuff to deal with and sometimes we may even say our moments are bigger than big, so we refer to it as “epic.”

Elijah had an epic encounter with the Lord. He followed God’s very detailed orders to deal with Ahab and his false prophets and it was successful. The result was that Ahab’s wife Jezebel did not like what Elijah did so her anger rose up with vengeance. It scared Elijah, so he ran for his life, saying “”I have had enough, LORD, take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.”

Isn’t this exactly what is going on today in our world? Things seem hopeless. The mind tricks people in to believing things are so bad that they want to die. Suicide rates with our teens are rising in great numbers. Why? Because the lie going through their mind is “There’s no way to resolve this.”

In an “epic” moment, we need an “epic” hero. Elijah’s all knowing hero, God, rescues him in a gentle, loving way. God starts by letting Elijah rest and fills him with food. Quickly, Elijah gains tremendous strength and is able to do something not many of us could do. He travels by foot 40 days and 40 nights. Wow!

Are you amazed at what God can do for you? We can be empty, out of strength and filled with worry yet God steps in and creates an “epic” ending to a situation. Our “epic” hero.

Get up and eat! I can give you strength! –GOD

QUOTE: Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but only empties today of its strength.” – Charles Spurgeon (Maybe when I am lacking strength, it’s because I am not lacking worries.)

BIBLE VERSE: “The angel of the LORD came back a second time and touched him and said, “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.” So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God. There he went into a cave and spent the night” (1 Kings 19:7-9 NIV).

Oil For Our Lamps

By Cheri Cowell –

Did you know the Bible has a lot to say about procrastination? Like millions of people, as the year begins I set goals for the New Year. I must admit, however, I am bitten by the after Christmas blues, or as some might call them, the having difficulty getting back into the swing of things blues. I easily find ways to put things off, delay acting, and as Webster so harshly nails it on the head, I am negligent. Ouch! So, I decided to go to God’s Word to get a jump-start, or maybe a kick in my pants.

If you need one too, read the Bible verse for today.

In this parable, we get a clear picture of the results of consistent procrastination. It was customary on the wedding day for the bridegroom to go to the bride’s house for the ceremony. Then bride and groom, along with the processional of family and friends, would return to the groom’s house for a feast or banquet, which sometimes lasted a week.

Also of note, Jesus often referred to the gift of the Holy Spirit as oil. When I reread this parable with this information, I began to see how my procrastination was a result of leaning on my own abilities, gifts, and initiative. Instead, if I fill my lamp with His oil, and my spirit with The Spirit and lean on Him to lead my way, the procrastination will turn into productivity. What a great lesson to begin the New Year.

PRAYER: God, show me what You might want me to learn today about procrastination. Thank You for understanding my tendency to procrastinate. Help me to lean more upon You and less upon my own abilities, gifts, and initiative and more on Your Holy Spirit.

BIBLE VERSE: “Then the kingdom of heaven will be comparable to ten virgins, who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were prudent. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the prudent took oil in flasks along with their lamps” (Matthew 25:1-5 read through 13 for whole parable. NASB).

Do You Have a Growth Commitment?

By Peter Lundell –

I often ask people how long their New Year’s resolutions last. Typically they seem to crash and burn sometime by the end of January. So life goes on as it did before.

Positive change must be addressed every day. It happens not by achievement but by habit.

I encourage people to chuck resolutions in favor of what I call “growth commitments” that I establish for each year. I’ve done annual growth commitments since 1986 that have led to major growth and changes in my life, which also makes my wife happy.

Think primarily in terms of personal character growth, not just paying off a credit card or losing weight. Those are fine, but if you relate them to deeper issues of character growth, you’ll go much deeper with the whole commitment and attain more overall results than you would otherwise. Go ahead and have other goals. But if you keep the growth commitment to one main thing, simply expressed, you will do well.

Two keys make it work: 1—Keep it simple and short, then write it on a on a small piece of paper (or PDA), and put it where you’ll see it daily, like on a mirror, in a wallet, as a bookmark, or whatever works for you. 2—Pray it, incorporate it into time you (hopefully) spend with God each day. And do it all year long. When you write it down and keep it where you’ll always see it, you enable yourself to consistently pray it.

Doing this accomplishes two other things: You bring God’s response into it, and you reorient your own thinking around the commitment. Change your thinking and you’ll change your behavior—especially if you seek God’s blessing each day.

What would your 2013 growth commitment be?

“Lord, my life is in Your hands. In this coming year mold me into your image and grow me beyond who I am now….”

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the LORD” (Jeremiah 29:11-13, NIV).

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