FINDING JOY

Finding Joy

Friday, June 30, 2023

12:25 PM

 

How do you find joy in times of trial and frustration?  In times of sadness and loneliness?  How do you find the inner strength when every day is such an effort to endure?  Why is the joy of the former days so distant and seemingly out of reach? 

 

These are the questions I have been asking myself this week or at least for the past few days.  My mind and my body are not happy.  My heart is sad and my eyes are on the verge of tears every other hour.  I feel sadness about everything right now and I am not sure of the exact cause except for the fact my helpmate, my sweetheart, my best friend, my husband is no longer here on earth to help me find my joy again.  He always figured out a way to make me smile when I was sad.  He could say something that would remind me of all I had to be thankful for.  He knew how to bring me back to the joy of the Lord.  I miss him and his wisdom.  I miss his voice in my ear.  I miss his arms of love when I needed a hug.  It's lonely without him.

 

I could go for a walk on the beach and cry.  I could go for a drive and cry.  I could go shopping for something I do not need and then come home and cry.  I could make phone calls to my family or my friends and cry.  But what good would all of that do besides bring others into my sadness and have them worry about me and my mental stability.  Everyone has their own troubles.  Each one of us has something that troubles us.  Our only hope is in the Lord.

 

In John chapter 15 Jesus spoke these words;

 

“I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me. “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned. But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted! When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father. I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow! This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me. You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name. This is my command: Love each other." - John 15:1-17

 

Without Jesus we have no hope, no joy, no peace, no happiness.  We follow Him and His ways because we want to please Him and be the kind of person who loves others.  Without hope, joy, peace and happiness we are just like those in the world who are lost souls.  This is how they live life every day.  But read these words again. Jesus calls us his friend when we are his followers.  He chose us to follow Him and to hear His words of encouragement to not be like those in the world.  He called us to be different than the hopeless, the joyless, those without peace, those with no happiness.  Wrap your mind around the words spoken by Jesus over two thousand years ago,

 

"I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name."

 

God the Son, Jesus Christ, chose you.  He chose me to speak His name and give others a spark of joy, a piece of hope, a word of peace.  Maybe not every day but the days when others around me need to hear these words.  Some days I need to hear these words and no one is here to speak them into me.  But the Holy Spirit is here with me.  He does speak to me.  I do hear Him even when I am sinking in tears of sadness.  He does comfort me with words of love and guidance.  With words of peace and contentment.  Without any condemnation for my feelings, today He encourages me to look forward to tomorrow. 

 

Proverbs 17:22 (NLT) - A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit saps a person’s strength.

 

1 Thessalonians 5:16 (NLT) - Always be joyful.

 

Romans 14:17 (NLT) - For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

 

Isaiah 55:12 (NLT) - You will live in joy and peace. The mountains and hills will burst into song, and the trees of the field will clap their hands!

 

Psalms 126:5 (NLT) - Those who plant in tears will harvest with shouts of joy.

 

Psalms 9:2 (NLT) - I will be filled with joy because of you. I will sing praises to your name, O Most High.

 

Nehemiah 8:10 (NKJV) - Then he said to them, “Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.”

 

The Holy Spirit meets with us when we are downcast and sad. He comes along side of us and cries with us.  He knows all too well our sadness and why.  He understands everything and holds our tears on His shoulder of strength and compassion.  He is our Comforter, our Advocate to the Father to help us see the wonder and beauty of our lives and those who touch our lives throughout the days and the years.  He leads us out of those valleys of darkness and sadness and puts us back on the path we have been set on by the Father and the Son.  He restores our joy so that we can move forward to the days ahead when we can stand along side one of our family members or friends that is having a sad and joyless day.

 

Acts 13:52 (NKJV) - And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.

 

When we have times of sadness, which are pruning times,  we need to remember we are a branch attached to The Vine.  We are chosen by Him to produce fruit and the fruit of the Spirit is;

Galatians 5:22 (NKJV) - But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

 

He is with us and encouraging us to come back to the joy of our first love, Jesus Christ Son of God, our King and our Savior!

 

Thinking of Paul and Little Children

There are a couple of things the Holy Spirit has brought to mind this morning that I wanted to get written down.

THOUGHTS ON THE APOSTLE PAUL:  
My first thoughts are about the apostle Paul and the thorn in his side.  In 2 Corinthians 12 he talks about it a bit.  He says he was "given a thorn in his flesh, a messenger of Satan."  A thorn in the flesh is something that would cause him pain or discomfort every day.  All the time.  Neverendingly poking at him.  Constantly on his mind.  

We know that Paul, when he was Saul the Pharisee, he was a thorn to many early Christians.  He caused them much discomfort even to the point of death.  He persecuted them.  But then one day on the road to Damascus, on the way to persecute more Christians, he was stuck down by an intense bright light and Jesus spoke to him.  He was blinded and taken to a house where he suffered while the Holy Spirit fell on him as he had fallen on the Christian people.  It wasn’t till Ananias came and spoke to him that "something like scales fell from his eyes."  He tells the story in Act 9 and Acts 22.

I wonder if the intense bright light and the scales which fell from his eyes caused permanent damage to his eyes, his eyesight?  We know there are scriptures that tell of his poor eyesight.  We know he had trouble with his eyes for the rest of his life.  I wonder if the thorn in his side was his sight, this messenger of Satan, a daily reminder that he could no longer see clearly with his physical eyes and had to rely more on his mind and the power of the Holy Spirit working in and through him.  He would never fully see with his eyes again after that first encounter with Jesus.  He would always be reminded of what he did before he came to know Jesus and his saving grace and mercy.  This could be the thorn in his side that never went away but did not hold him back so much that he would be unable to keep from spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ and the miracles of coming to Him and following Him?  I wonder.

THOUGHTS ABOUT LITTLE CHILDREN:
My next thought is about little children and the Lord's love for them.  Over and over through the Bible little children are adored and loved by the Lord. God the Son, Jesus the Christ, says in Matthew 18:3, that unless we turn from sin and become like little children we will never see the Kingdom of Heaven and that if we lead one of these little children into sin it would be better to have a stone tied around our necks and drowned in the sea!  That is pretty straightforward. It is intense if you really think about it and dwell on it.  Read the word NEVER.  The King James Version says, "ye shall not", which means never, enter the Kingdom of God.

'And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. '
Matthew 18:3

What is it about little children?  He calls us his children.  Father God calls his people his children.  Jesus calls us his family, his children. Children are young and innocent until adults get a hold of them and show them sinful ways.  Adults are their teachers and their leaders. Children live how they are taught and how they are disciplined.  Children are the earliest example of mankind,  made in the image of God here on earth.  They have just left the spiritual realm of God a short time ago.  They were with the Father and then the spark of  life, that first breath of life, was breathed into them. If that tiny baby does not breath they do not live.  They die and the spirit returns to the Father and the tiny body is returned to the dust. Each of these little ones were knit together in the womb of their mother and then when they drew that first breath of life on earth they became a full human being. Before that they had not breathed the air on this earth but were fully and totally connected to the Father, Spirit to spirit.  It took that first breath to put the child physically and spiritually on earth.  When the umbilical cord was cut the baby became an individual, a person, a separated being from the Father.  A human being made in the image of God but now cut from the Spirit of God.  A human being with a free will but a little child needing to be taught the ways of the Father and a lifetime to find a way to restore that spiritual connection that was just cut.  He wants us each to find the way, the truth and the life.  He wants us each to find Him again.

As the little ones grew here on earth that connection of God's Spirit and the spirit of that little child began to separate more.  Each month, each year the spiritual separation widened.  Each year the child learned from the adults and those around who had been in the world for a longer period time.  Some of these people involved in the nurturing of the child did a wonderful job and taught them about God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.  Some lead these little children on a path of spiritual destruction. The innocent little child was lead to sin and selfishness which is totally opposite than God, who is loving kindness, mercy and grace.  God will hold the adults accountable for the sins of the little children. The initial plan of God was to have a beautiful relationship with His people and the people were suppose to be following God and leading their children towards God, not away from Him.  An evil one came into the picture a long time ago and is still doing his best to lead every single soul he possibly can away from God.  He has been damned to hell, the burning lake of fire, for a long time but the plan has not been completed yet as God wants each of us to return to Him spiritually.

If we could see the world in spiritual eyes we would see billions of adults walking around with millstones hung around their necks.  God will eventually be drowning them in the sea or the lake of fire for what they have done to the little children.  The only way to cut the rope holding the millstone is to repent and ask for forgiveness from Jesus for causing the little ones to follow after sinful ways and selfishness.  Jesus will forgive those with a truly repentant heart.  

Stubborn or Determined

 

Today has been a day of much contemplation.  Today has been a day to officially let go of the past.  Some one in the past has hurt me and I have let that hurt surface for the last time.  There is no need to go into detail but it took most of the morning,  a long conversation with daughter and a couple of letters written but torn up to come to this point of letting go. Completely.  Fully. Once and for all.  I am determined not to go back to this person in my own heart. With my own tears.  That season of life if over and actually has been over for decades.

This brought me to the next thoughts of how stubborn I am.  I like to think I am determined rather than stubborn.  Stubbornness can be a bad thing.  When we dig in our heels to something and not be the least bit unyielding.  Especially when it is a selfish thing.  Something we do not want to give up or give up on others.  So when I think about my own stubbornness I need to stand back and look at exactly what it is all about.   If I am determined to do this thing, is the blessing of the Lord upon it?  Is it something that will bless the person and the kingdom of God?  Is it worthy determination or plain stubbornness and refusal to give in?  Am I just being stubborn and not wanting to give up out of self gratification? There is a huge difference between selfish stubbornness and Godly determination.

This takes me to how opinionated I am.  Am I opinionated and mouthy or am I opinionated and wise?  Am I choosing wise words to share or merely stating my opinion in another self gratified way? As I have gotten older I have calmed down with the words coming from my mouth.  Not the amount of words, as I still talk a mile a minute, but the words are a bit more hand picked by the Holy Spirit before they come out.  This is another good thing happening to me as the scriptures talk a lot about the tongue.

Proverbs 21:23 (NIV) - Those who guard their mouths and their tongues keep themselves from calamity.

James 1:26 (NIV) - Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless.

Ephesians 4:29 (NIV) - Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.

Proverbs 12:18 (NIV) - The words of the reckless pierce like swords, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.

I Corinthans 13:1 (NV) -  If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

Since I have been a firm proponent of "Choose your words wisely" then I need to be very careful how I speak out among others.  Since I am now leading a women's home ministry group I need to speak carefully and thoughtfully.  Since I am older and (should be) wiser than a younger person or a younger believer I need to be using words from the Holy Spirit that edify Him.

Today is a day of good reflection and more of the daily dying we are asked to do as we get closer to our day of redemption.  My past sins have crucified Jesus time and time again and I need to stop doing that to Him.  I love Him with all my heart, mind and soul and do not want my stubbornness to hurt Him or others.  Today I am letting go of some things and ways that needed to be let go of a LONG time ago.  

Called

 Our Power of Twelve word for this month is "called" and the scripture reference is 1 Corinthians 7:20 which says,

"Each person should remain in the life situation to which he was called.

As I first pondered this I was wondering what is the Apostle Paul trying to tell us.  Why did he advise us to stay where we were when we heard Jesus calling out to us to come to him and be saved?  Wouldn't we need to start changing our lives, become better and to do better?  What if we are in a terrible part of our lives when God gets our attention and tell us to leave the world behind and become a part of his kingdom and family?  Why would God want us to stay right there where He found us in our lives of sin?  Didn't God want us out of our world of sin?  Yes.  He does.  But this verse must be read in the context of the entire chapter. Also note the word "should" in this verse.  The King James version (the original version) and the New King James version do not have the word should.  Many other versions say "should".  More about that later.

As I read the entire chapter and did some research I began to understand Paul was addressing the Corinthian church about marriage and sex.  Verses 1 - 16 tells them that only married couples should be having sex and that each one should stay in the marriage even if only one is a believer when that one person is called.  That one believer could be how the other partner can also hear the call to salvation.  Paul then goes on to explain in verse 20 that the one who is called needs to stay right where they are and not leave the life situation they are currently living in.  Just because one has been called to salvation you do not leave your spouse.  They are free to leave, but the believer is not.

In verses 12-14 Paul explain that the believer in the household "sanctifies" the entire household.  The word sanctifies means to be holy.  God's holiness resides upon the entire household because of the faith of the one believer.  God's favor is upon the household of the believer and all who reside there in the family.  The marriage contract is sacred to God and He is the one who wants us to stay with the partner we married no matter what.  The exception to this is adultery.

The word "should" is in this translation but when looking at the original translation the scripture says,

"Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called." (KJV)

God is instructing us to  remain right where we are when He called us to salvation.  God gives a condition that if there is adultery or the unbeliever leaves the marriage then the marriage contract is broken and the believer is free of that contract.

Chapter 7 of First Corinthians is almost entirely in regards to the life situation of marriage (he does speak to slaves so that may pertain to where we work?) and remaining in a marriage to a non-believer.  You may have been "called" by the Lord to salvation but your spouse has not heard that calling…..yet.  Who knows what kind of impact you can have on your unbelieving spouse?

God knows!  He wants us to stay (remain) where we are and watch and see what miracles God can do in marriages, families, jobs and our entire lives. When God "called" each of us He always knew the plan and the purpose for when, where and how.  We trust in Him and His wisdom.