If someone were to ask you ‘what brings you joy?’, what would you think of? Your wedding day? The birth of your children? Buying a new house? For most people, these milestone moments come to mind right away. While these are certainly joyful moments, they are not true joy.
Joy is found in contentment. Do you ever take a deep breath in and as you breathe out you feel a quiet confidence that everything is okay? That brief second reminds you that it all is well with your soul. Joy is the peaceful calm that builds up within our hearts and minds and spills out as happiness to those around us.
Joy lives in the moments that connect ‘milestone moments’ to each other. Your joy is visible in how you live your life. It’s easy to feel joy during a milestone moment, but how do you feel during the regular days? If you feel irritated, discontented, and negative, ask God to show you what may be stealing your joy. On the other hand, if you are able to enjoy the moment you’re in and see the positive side of things, ask God to use you to encourage others who need help finding their joy.
You don’t have to be happy about the situation to have joy in it. God wants us to know that even though we’re going through difficult times, it’s not wasted. God uses everything for our good and our faith and character is being refined during the times of trial. Praise God that our heartache and pain is not for nothing!
It’s easy to have joy in the milestone moments of life. Having joy on your wedding day is expected, being joyful as you care for your sick loved one is not. Being filled with joy on the day your child graduates is so much easier than enduring seasons of teenage angst and negative attitudes. But it’s the difficult moments that bring the most change. God wants us to remember that everything, good and bad, has a purpose. We can find great joy knowing that we’re benefiting in some way from the trials and tests that we go through. We are much better people for them!
Be blessed!
Jennifer
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.” James 1: 2-3