The Secret of Joy

What is the real secret to having Joy? Is there a secret?  I believe that there is a real secret to finding Joy and the reason that people do not find it, is because it is hard. We have a tendency to shy away from things that are going to be hard.  The secret of Joy is not as much of a secret as it is a tough thing that people do not want to do. What is this thing?

Forgiveness.  May people struggle with forgiveness and many times they struggle with Joy.  A lack of forgiveness leads to a lack of Joy.

You might wonder what does forgiveness have to do with Joy?  The way of feeling true Joy is by giving and getting forgiveness.  It comes by asking for forgiveness when you need to and by granting it when someone has harmed you,

Are there people in your life who you hold grudges or anger against?  If there are you are called to forgive them and when you do you will find Joy.  Look at what the Bible says about forgiveness:

Mark 11:25 "Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions. 26 ["But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive your transgressions."]

Luke 17: 3 "Be on your guard! If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. 4 "And if he sins against you seven times a day, and returns to you seven times, saying, `I repent,’ forgive him."

2 Corinthians 2:7 Now is the time to forgive this man and help him back on his feet. If all you do is pour on the guilt, you could very well drown him in it.

Do you have anger toward yourself because of things you have done? Have you forgiven yourself?  If you ask God to forgive you of your sins, He does but the question looms – so then why can’t you forgive yourself?  Lack of forgiving yourself is a lack of joy.  Forgive yourself.   Look again at the Word of God.

Psalm 25:7 Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions; According to Your lovingkindness remember me, For Your goodness’ sake, O LORD

Psalm 103:11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, So great is His loving kindness toward those who fear Him. 12 As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.

Forgiveness is is one of those things people struggle with in their lives.  You may be one of those people who look at others who forgive easily and say how in the world can they forgive like this? You might be like the older brother in story of the prodigal son.

Luke 15:25 "Now his older son was in the field, and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 "And he summoned one of the servants and began inquiring what these things could be. 27 "And he said to him, `Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has received him back safe and sound.’ 28 "But he became angry and was not willing to go in; and his father came out and began pleading with him. 29 "But he answered and said to his father, `Look! For so many years I have been serving you and I have never neglected a command of yours; and yet you have never given me a young goat, so that I might celebrate with my friends; 30 but when this son of yours came, who has devoured your wealth with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him.’ 31 "And he said to him, `Son, you have always been with me, and all that is mine is yours. 32 `But we had to celebrate and rejoice, for this brother of yours was dead and has begun to live, and was lost and has been found.’ "

We need to be people who are like the father and when people repent and forgiveness comes we should celebrate. Forgiveness is a joyful thing! When we forgiven and when we are forgiven we should be joyful – forgiveness is a joyful thing!  You will feel a sense of Joy that will come as a result of forgiveness. You need to be someone who forgives easily and do not hold grudges because it will make you a better person. The more easily you forgive the more joy you will be experiencing in your life.

To wrap up this week on Joy remember these things that are all the secret to living a life of Joy:

• Be a person full of forgiveness.
• Find Joy in your relationships.
• Do all to the glory of God.
• Overcome rather than complain.
• Choose to be joyful.

Let us be joyful in out lives!

What brings you the most Joy in life?  Which one of these areas in regard to joy that we looked at do you do the best at?

Moving to Joyfulness!

We have been talking about Joy.  Here are the main ideas of what we have covered so far:   Joy – Authentic Joy comes from God and is found in God. The source is God and that is where you need to look. The starting point for the having joy in our lives begins with God.  Joy is not a one time choice but a choice that you need to make daily and many times on most days!  Make the choice now to live in Christ and to allow Christ to live in you and you will be making the choice for joy.

Here are a few more thoughts on some things we can do that will help keep us focused on being joyful.  These are areas that if we do them – we will find ourselves being much more joyful. 

Let us remember these things:

Invite God to be a part of everything you do – 1 Corinthians 10:31 says, Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. If you are doing everything to God’s glory then you will find true joy. You will feel true joy when you are serving God in everything that you do! When you are doing it to His glory, you are asking Him to be a part of it. Never lose the focus of everything in this life is to be done with God in focus. That goes from the trivial things in life like eating and drinking to the majors in life and everything in between. Joy comes daily, when you daily do all for God.

Do not complain! – People who complain are people who do not have joy. The funny thing is that most people do not see themselves as complainers. Complainers are people who put their eyes on circumstance rather than on God. When your eyes are on the circumstances you are not making a good choice – you are not choosing joy! The bible in Philippians 2:14 says, Do all things without complaining and disputing,. The Old Testament has some harsh things happen to those who complain. Take some time later and look up the snakes biting the children of Israel in Numbers 21, why because they were complaining.

Just like joy being contagious, so is complaining. That is why I believe that God deals with it so harshly. If you complain about work do see others joining in? Yes, because most people have programmed their brains to see the negative and complain, not to see the positive and find joy in it. When things at home, work, church, or anywhere else do not go your way, what do you do? Do you choose Joy or do you complain. Most if they are honest will say they complain. To get past this you need to begin to focus in on the joys instead of everything that is wrong. The more you focus you energy on the joys of life the more joy you will feel in life.

Events are opportunities see God – Instead of getting down and depressed about things that happen in your life. Look and find God, he can be found in the most unexpected places. When bad things happen we can get upset and be miserable and begin to rob joy from others or we can be over comers. John 4:4 tells us, You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. Then in Romans we read this: Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Rom 12:21).

When we come across hard times it is our chance to overcome the evil that is around us with the good of Christ. When that happens you will feel a sense of joy that is unexplainable.

People are Special – Jesus in his ministry was all about people. Jesus built relationships with people. Jesus understood that people are special and that they are the ones that bring joy. True joy is found in relationships, in building, making, and keeping relationships.  A life without relationships is a life without joy.

The goal is to live a life of joy. This is possible and it is a choice that we choose each and every day.

We begin by making the choice for a good day. Then we ask God to be a part of everything that we do and we do everything to his glory. We do not complain because that robs us of joy but we see that we are to overcome the problems. Finally we see that people and relationship are special and they are where joy can spring.  When we do these things we will find ourselves much more joyful.

Let us all make the choice right now to be joyful on a daily basis so that joy spreads rather than complaining!

Which one of the things I mentioned today (inviting God to be a part of everything, not complaining, events are opportunities, and people are special) do you have the most difficult time with and why do you think that is?

Choosing Joy

We started talking about Joy yesterday.  Here the main idea of what we talked about:  Joy – Authentic Joy comes from God and is found in God. You want joy – I mean do you really want authentic joy? The source is God and that is where you need to look. The starting point for the journey we are taking to find joy begins with God.  Joy is not a one time choice but a choice that you need to make daily and many times on most days!  Make the choice now to live in Christ and to allow Christ to live in you and you will be making the choice for joy.

But how do I live a joyfully every day and how do I bring that joy to others? That will be what we talk about today.

“Joy is contagious.
It can spread like a forest fire, whipped by a high, hot wind.
Joy can be shared in a crowd.
Or it can be savored all alone.
Joy can bellow.
Or it can fall soft as a kitten’s tread.
Joy can excite.
Or it can comfort.
Joy can be sensuous.
Or it can spring from the intellect.
Joy can bewitch.
Joy can be sweet.
Or it can be zesty, euphoric, giddy.
It can teach. It can heal. It can lay to rest old pain.
In a world so darkened by suffering and uncertainty, joy can brighten our heavens
and make life worth living all over again.” - Philip B. Kunhardt Jr., The Many Faces of Joy

I choose joy… I will invite my God to be the God of circumstance. I will refuse the temptation to be cynical… the tool of the lazy thinker. I will refuse to see people as anything less than human beings, created by God. I will refuse to see any problem as anything less than an opportunity to see God. – Max Lucado

One of the things I want you to understand is that joy is a choice. It is a choice that you can make daily or it is a choice you can choose to not make. The question is how can you make the choice to be joyful on a daily basis?

Let us look at one way today on how we be be joyful on a daily basis and we will look at more tomorrow.  The one way today  we will look at is something we have already talked about and it is:

Choose to be joyful – We were all born with a free will. We have the freedom to choose whatever it is that we want to do, whether good or bad. Therefore, since we have the power to choose, we have the power to choose if we will be joyful or not. We can not choose every circumstance that we go through but we can choose the attitude that we have when we go through it, One of my favorite quotes of all time is “… everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms – to choose one’s own attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” – Viktor Frankl

Let me give you some background on this quote. Frankl was a Jewish psychologist locked up in a concentration camp. The quote that is made is made about those that he found were the ones who were able to make it through such a terrible time; they choose to have a good attitude in a terrible situation.

Again, as we look at joy and being joyful on a daily basis, we can see that our attitude plays a large part.  Two verses that we need to think about on this are:  Philippians 4:4 which says “Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice”  and the other  verse is Psalms 118:24 which says “This is the day which the LORD has made; Let us rejoice and be glad in it.”

Today regardless of what you are going through you can choose to be joyful!

How often do you find yourself choosing joy?  What is the hardest part of choosing joy for you?

Consider Joy

What is Joy? How is it different from happiness or are they the same? Do you experience joy in your life on a daily basis? What are the secrets to joy? How can you have joy in hard times? What are the sources of Joy? How do you deal with joy robbers? Do you find joy in relationships? Do you bring joy to other people? What is authentic joy?

There are a lot of questions here, things that we need to wrestle with and throughout this week I will look into these questions. I believe that most of people live in some false fantasy world of what joy is and never really feel true joy. I also believe that when people do find it they allow others to come in and rob if from them right away.

Consider this statement I came across: One of the greatest marketing strategies ever employed is to position the kingdom of Satan as the place where the fun is and the kingdom of God as the place of gloom and misery.

Consider the at basic question:  What is Joy?

1. The emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one desires
2. A state of happiness
3. A source or cause of delight

C.S.Lewis defined Christian joy this way: Joy has to do with the deepest longings of the human heart. The satisfying of our innermost, soul’s desires. A desire that is stronger and deeper than any other longing.   And when that is fulfilled – then we have joy.

What then is joy? Is it a celebration, or a shout? You hear of joyful celebrations and shouts of joy. Are they really joy? The Bible says that the Joy of the Lord is our strength. Nehemiah 8:10 – Then he said to them, "Go, eat of the fat, drink of the sweet, and send portions to him who has nothing prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength." If this is true then why are we so weak and lacking in joy? How did we get to the point where joy is not what we know but we focus and live in grief? Does it have to do with the circumstances of life?

Does joy depend on the circumstances of life that you are going through?

Consider these couple of examples from the Bible:

• Acts 16 – Paul and Silas were singing and praising God after being beaten and thrown in prison.
• Book of Philippians – Paul is in prison writing that we should rejoice in the Lord.

Joy is the fruit of a right relation with God. It is not something people can create by their own efforts. The Bible distinguishes joy from pleasure. The Greek word for pleasure is the word from which we get our word hedonism, the philosophy of self-centered pleasure-seeking. – Holman Bible Dictionary

Joy is not dependent upon the circumstances but it is a choice that is made. We choose to be either joyful or not. You have the power in the middle of circumstances to be joyful or not.  Happiness comes from situations and joy comes from some other place. That is why you can choose joy in the midst of the terrible situation. So then where  those other places it comes from?

Where does Joy come from?  Consider these verses from Psalms:

Psalms 16:11 – You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.

Psalm 43:4 – Then I will go to the altar of God, To God my exceeding joy; And upon the lyre I shall praise You, O God, my God.

Psalm 45:7 – You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of joy above Your fellows.

How do you define joy?  What is the greatest joy in your life? Where would you say joy comes from?