Joy

Joy. I Thessalonians 5:16 says, "Be joyful always.” Today we are going to look at some ways to have continuous joy, even when life is hard and our circumstances seem overwhelming. I’d like us to start by first defining joy. Webster’s dictionary defines joy as an exhilaration of the spirit, happiness. Delight. Anything causing this, to rejoice. The Life Application Bible defines joy as emotion evoked by well-being, success or good fortune, gladness or delight. Don’t you wish they sold joy in a bottle? So, anytime that you ran out you could just open the bottle and rub some on. 2 Corinthians 2:14-15 says

14But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. 15For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. Are you wearing the fragrance of joy today?

There are many things that can come along and snatch our joy away. Maybe you’ve been there before, maybe you are there now. You are in a spiritual depression, a low. Your walk with God seems, dry and desert like. Something comes along in life that happens so suddenly or tragically and our joy is ripped from our hearts. It’s different things for all of us. You may have lost a husband or a child. You may be suffering physically or in pain. You may have loved ones or dear friends who you watch that are going through difficult times. All of us have things that we go through that can take our joy. Yet, what can we do when we loose our joy? When trials come. When you are living the desert life? King David wrote Psalm 63 while he was in the Desert of Judah, he says in verse 1 “O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you, my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you in a dry and weary land where there is no water.” However, if we can’t rejoice about anything else in our life currently, we can have joy by knowing that if you are in Christ, your name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. Whenever our lives get to the point where our circumstances are grim, we can rejoice and be glad in the fact that we will one day see Him face to face and our joy will be entirely complete. Psalm 51:12 says, “Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.” Having joy in our salvation can sustain us through difficult times.

Lori

Priorities

As I drove in to work this morning I had a thousand things on my mind. I was going through my to do list in my head and feeling overwhelmed as I pondered each project I had somehow gotten involved with. Everything from work to church commitments seemed to consume my thoughts. It was an overcast day this particular morning. It had that blue and gray look that said rain was on its way. As I made my way down the highway lost in my thoughts I was suddenly brought back to reality when my eyes were drawn to a rainbow. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I just stared and stared at it. The colors were beautiful and it looked like a ladder to the sky. As I gazed at the colored sky I realized my attention was now heavenward and not on my many tasks at hand. I felt as if the Lord was saying to me. Focus. Your attention needs to be on me. All of these other things will fall into place. I need to be the priority. I felt ashamed that I had been so caught up in my plans for the day. My mind was trying to work out a way for all the things to get done in a short amount of time. Had I just turned them over to the Lord and not taken back I may have had the peace I so desperately needed. It made me think of the verses in Matthew 6. I’m thankful that the Lord got my attention in such a delightful way. To Him be the glory.

Do Not Worry Matthew 6:25-34 25“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life[b]?

28“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Lori

Simplicity and Prayer

I have led women’s bible study classes for several years now. It is a passion of mine and I am blown away that God would let me be apart of this ministry. I love the fellowship and us working through the things of God together. In a class a few months back we had some extra time together and I felt that we needed to pray for each other. There were several situations at the time and I knew there were ladies who needed and wanted prayer. I began by asking the ladies to give requests, specific personal ones. Tell us your struggles the things you would like for us to bring before the Lord. After the first lady tearfully shared her request I asked would someone please pray for her. It took a few seconds, but eventually someone spoke up and prayed for the lady and the request she had made. As we went on in this manner it seemed that it took longer and longer for someone to say that they would be willing to pray for one of the ladies in our group. This fact concerned me. It was brought up again recently in a class about praying and especially praying out loud in front of a group. What’s our hang up about it? Many ladies confessed that they just didn’t feel as if they had the right words to say. We talked about what that meant. Could it be pride? Some of us are shy and any form of public speaking is terrifying, so the thought of praying aloud is more than we can bear. I began to think about prayer and the prayer lives of the ladies in the group. Did they struggle at home in their private time with the Lord as well as in a group? I found some wonderful verses from the Message Bible out of Matthew 16 that talks about simplicity in prayer. I hope this can be an encouragement to you in your prayer life. If you are struggling with how to pray or praying out loud I hope you will be blessed by what the word of God has to say. Never do I want to turn down an opportunity to petition the Creator of Heaven and Earth because of my own pride or fear. I don’t want to just be a woman of prayer, but a praying woman.

Matthew 6:7-13 From The Message Bible 7"The world is full of so-called prayer warriors who are prayer-ignorant. They're full of formulas and programs and advice, peddling techniques for getting what you want from God. 8Don't fall for that nonsense. This is your Father you are dealing with, and he knows better than you what you need. 9With a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply. Like this:

Our Father in heaven, Reveal who you are. 10Set the world right; Do what's best as above, so below. 11Keep us alive with three square meals. 12Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others. 13Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil. You're in charge! You can do anything you want! You're ablaze in beauty! Yes. Yes. Yes.

Lori

Isaiah 54:10

Unfailing love. So many people search for it. We look to our spouses, parents, children and friends to satisfy our love needs. Yet even though our family and friends love us, they still fail us from time to time. However looking to our family and friends to fill all of our love needs is a burden that for them can be so hard to bear. Many of us have God size love needs that we ask people or things to fill. God tells us in His word “Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,’ says the Lord, who has compassion on you.” Isaiah 54:10 God tells us that His love is unfailing. So why do we spend so much time and endure so much heartache filling ourselves with substitutes that fail and create more self-destruction, when God tells us He will supply all of our needs in Christ Jesus? God’s love is unconditional. No matter if we are married, single, rich, poor, successful or a failure, God’s love for us does not change!

However, what is required of us? Luke 11:9-10 says “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.” Ask God to strengthen your love walk with Him. Seek His love. And most importantly receive it freely. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind…” Luke 10:27

Lori

Isaiah 53:3

There is no way to hide from today. It’s Valentine’s Day. Between the pink and red that is consuming all the stores to the radio and television commercials touting the best thing to buy for your sweetheart this special day. Love is everywhere. What seems like such a simplistic and even at times silly holiday can stir up a lot of thoughts and emotions. Valentine’s Day can become a day of unnecessary pressure and unrealistic expectations.

Currently I am taking the bible study “Living Beyond Yourself” by Beth Moore. This study looks at the Fruit of the Spirit talked about in Galatians. The first quality or fruit is love. Beth Moore addresses the topic of love by talking about the possibility of rejection. When you love someone you take a chance that you might be rejected. I have thought about this topic for a few weeks now. Even the possibility of letting someone know you like them you take the risk that maybe they won’t feel the same way about you. I by nature am not a risk taker. I like to know the answer and know exactly where I am going. This attitude has sometimes hindered me in my spiritual life as well as in my relationships and career. I am by trade a bookkeeper. A very conservative job where there is normally a logical answer to every problem. I have in the past been wounded by rejection and still bear the scars from it. I got to thinking about how Christ knows what it is like to be rejected. Isaiah 53:3 says, “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.” Can you imagine the King of kings and Lord of lords rejected? Christ Jesus bears some of the same scars as we do when it comes to rejection, yet He loved anyway. He loved all the way to the cross. Laying down His life so that we could be forgiven. The Bible says love covers a multitude of sins and in our case His love covers all of our sins.

So, in light of everything that God has done for us maybe this particular Valentine’s Day we can just bask in his unfailing love. Maybe we have someone special in our lives or maybe we don’t. How about letting Jesus be your Valentine and vice versa? Let the perfect, most satisfying and fulfilling love fill your heart and mind. Oswald Chambers said “No love of the natural heart is safe without being satisfied by God first.” Our heart is not safe unless God has satisfied us first. Letting God love us, and accepting His forgiveness, is the way to have a healthy heart and provides a foundation for us to love others. Loving like the Lord loves, with agape love. The Greek language has many words it uses to express love. When the Bible talks about God’s love for us, it is said to be agape. Which means to love with best interest in mind, an esteeming love. “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him.” 1 John 4:16-17

When talking to a friend of mine recently about Valentine’s Day she made a great suggestion. How about finding a widow or senior adult and helping them celebrate the day. There are so many lonely and hurting people in the world that we can show the love of Christ to. I hope that God will help you find a way to celebrate His love on today. By either letting Him lavish His love on you or by you letting the love of Christ show to others. Happy Valentine’s Day! “And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge–that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:17-19

Lori