Another Thing About Joy!

Happy Saturday friends! As we shoot on through July I want to share a few things that has been highlighted to me this week. Lately I’ve been pretty quiet, not talking much simply because I’ve been in a place of speechlessness. Part of it could be due to my own frustrations and reposturing my heart, and I do believe that God silences us sometimes to prevent us from cursing the very thing that He’s bringing to pass with our words. He allowed the Angel Gabriel to do it to Zechariah simply because He doubted what God said.

In this silence I’ve been learning how to take my frustrations, questions, and concerns to God and solely lean on Him. I’ve been learning how to seek only God and His voice. It’s been challenging when you find yourself venting to others and then it turns into you complaining, it’s almost like you have to start the silence over again lol.

I found that for me atleast it’s been difficult to find joy in suffering but then again is it really? Perspective is huge in how we view things and then in return how we approach things too. The Bible literally says in James 1:2-4 to count it all joy when test and trials come your way. Why? Because of perspective. It’s not because God wants us to suffer but in our faith being refined we produce patience, strength, endurance, and for us to lack nothing but instead to be complete.

So how do we find joy? To be honest I’m still trying to figure that part out most days lol but as I wrote a post a few years back I talked about choosing joy. It can be so easy to focus on the suffering that we forget that God is still working. We begin to limit how big God really is. We begin to deem our test and trials impossible to overcome. It’s easy to say scripture but to believe it and to get it planted and rooted is work. It’s like taming a garden. You plant the seed and you water it but then things like time, creatures, and other obstacles come and sometimes the seeds or the roots get uprooted, or the harvest gets attacked and you literally have to start over or restore what had been planted.

That’s how it is with the word of God. We plant the word in us but it’s up to us to maintain and tame the word so that it’s guarded, rooted and harvesting in us. So instead of focusing on the suffering so much why not rejoice in what’s to come? Why not praise God simply for being and for sustaining in what could have taken us out a long time ago? Why not thank God for the strength that He gave us when we felt like giving up? His word said to count it ALL joy, I like to believe that the “all” is all of the suffering, the trials, the obstacles, the setbacks, the hurt, the pain, etc. That’s the all that we should consider joy, knowing that God will bring us through and bless us bigger than we could imagine.

My prayer today is that we find joy, choose joy, count it ALL joy, and rejoice in all that we have endured and all that we will overcome!

With love,

-Yours Truly, Eb