Living in Joy

How many times do we truly live in the Joy that God has given us?

I know for me, fear, anxiety, worry, all try to creep in and ruin the wonderful blessings God has for me!

There have been so many times in my life that I was too worried to be excited! Too scared to fully embrace the goodness of God! I was worried, "What if it was too good to be true!?" "What if this glorious blessing is taken away!?"

The What If's can rob us of enjoying the wonderfulness that is Christ's blessings in our life! From worries on our wedding day that the day goes as planned we miss the PURPOSE of the day! To worrying about the loss of a pregnancy we miss the JOY that God has created a life!

We may even rob the joy in our children! There are times where our worries and anxiety can crush their joyful hearts! The first day of school, their first time driving, their high school graduation! Yes, as parents, your job is to protect them, but what if our fears and anxieties consume us so that we crush the joy of our children growing up! 

Fear of death, fear of sickness, FEAR! It can consume us whole!

"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly." - John 10:10 

Every time I hear that "What if" pop in my head, every time I hear the doubt creep in that this gift is actually mine to be enjoyed I remember this verse; "The thief comes to steal and kill and destroy!" He seeks after our joy! He wants to destroy it!

"I came that they may have life and have it abundantly!" What a glorious promise from our Lord to live in his Joy! Replace the they with your name, "I came that ___________ may have life and have it abundantly!"

Next time fear creeps in, next time the what ifs seem to put is in a spiral, remember who came to destroy our joy and who came so we can have life in it! Live in your joy my friends, don't let satan kill and destroy it!

To Live as Christ

How many of us have seen or worn the WWJD bracelets? It’s a good motto to live by! In the Christian Church we are taught that the reflection of our life would emanate Christ. So we ask our selves What Would Jesus Do? Or do we?

How many of us can truly say we live as Christ? What would that look like? Read through the Gospels! Living as Christ would be to live with love! Not just loving our family and friends but loving our enemy, loving those that look different and act different, loving those who harm us or do us wrong. It’s loving when we don’t want to and loving when it’s hard. In Christ’s dying moments he said to the Father “Forgive them for they do not know what they are doing!” He lived in love until his dying breath.

To live like Christ means to live out his purpose in your life. God has called us for a unique purpose! He has called us to serve him with our own unique gifts and talents. I could take up a whole blog post just talking about how we all are given spiritual gifts from the Lord. When we walk in those gifts we are serving him, we are living as Christ.

Living as Christ means selflessness! How many times do we justify the reasons why we don’t want to go help the neighbor, make someone a meal, serve at church? We have limited time, we have children, we have houses to clean, meals to make of our own, jobs that need to be done for the livelihood of our families. To  live as Christ is to live with a servants heart and to live in fellowship of one another.

The second part of this verse is, “to die is gain.” Death is an uncomfortable topic! But the reality of death is that IF you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ death equals eternity in Heaven! Eternity with our father!

Paul writes in Philippians from prison. He isn’t sure what the outcome of this event will be but he knows his options are this: If they allow him to live he can continue to live out his purpose in a Christ , serving the church and spreading Gods word. If they don’t allow him to live he gets to spend eternity in heaven. To Paul’s it’s a win win.

Would it be the same for you? If you were Paul would you be able to say “To Live is Christ and to die is gain?”


Reflection:
1. How can you live more like Christ?
2. Are you walking in Gods plan for you? If not, where do you begin?