Joy... Where Is Yours?

Joy is something that makes or breaks every one's lives. Joy makes each day easier to face and each trial easier to handle. In life if you have joy other people notice. If you do not have joy other people notice that as well. Joy effects your life AND the lives of those around you. Joy allows you to not only face your life with confidence and happiness, but also to engender those same feelings in others.

Joy is necessary in every aspect of life. Depending on where you find your joy determines whether or not your joy is always there when you need it. Where we "find" our joy is extremely important in life. Often we find joy when we get something new, when we get to do something we love, or even in other people. When we find joy in those things, we are only feeling the emotion. The emotion will leave when the item is not new any more, we don't get to do special things, or see special people.

How do we receive joy that is true and constant then? In order to have constant joy we must get our joy from the only thing in life that is always constant. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. If we choose to find joy in God our joy will never leave us. We must remember that it is a choice to find joy in God though. If we purposely choose to rejoice in the Lord, the emotion will come.

In everything God gives us He requires effort on our part first. The story of the lady and the oil, Joseph in the prison, and Moses with all of the miracles he preformed... they all had to do something first. God asked them to do something within their power BEFORE He would take care of what they could not. It is the same with joy. God gives us joy, it is our choice to reach out and take hold of it or not. We may not have to ask all of our neighbors for jars to put oil in, but we might have to choose to hold our tongue or praise Him when we are down. However, when we do our part to be joyful, God will give you joy in ways you can't even imagine!

Philippians 4:4 says Rejoice in the Lord always! Again I say rejoice! This week let's all work on ALWAYS remembering to rejoice! Because if you believe the Word to be holy and that disobeying His Word is sin... then when we choose not to be joyful... according to this verse we are choosing sin...

Thank you for rejoicing in the Lord with me!

Tyler

Being Content

The Word says in 1 Timothy 6 that we should be content by simply having clothes on our back and a little food to eat. Since I know that almost everyone reading this has food, clothes, and much more, what is keeping us from being content? If we stop and think about what really keeps us from being content in our lives, what do we find? We have cars, we have computers, we have money. We should be more than content with all that! Even though we have these things, we are blinded by the faster car, nicer computer, and more money that our neighbor has! We as Christians need to be content with what we are given. That does not mean you are doomed to poverty if thats where you are right now, but that does mean that we should find the things in life that we do have and be thankful for them!

One of the keys to be content is finding your joy in God. No matter what your situation is, God doesn't change, He is always there! If you are finding your joy in God, then even when all else is crumbling, your joy will be standing right there with you! In life today it is incredibly easy to get caught up in the next big thing and begin to find your joy in that. We have to be careful to not find our joy in getting the next promotion, finally finding the right person, moving away to your dream house, or any other thing we long for! Eventually you will get your promotion, house, spouse, and everything else and you still wont be content! That is because those things can change and falter so if you base you joy on them, your joy will crumble. We need to wake up and realize that God is the only stable thing in life. We should be clinging to Him with all of our might! So as you go through the rest of your day, think about what you are finding your joy in... where you get your fulfilment. Think about being content with what we have, because others have so little! I encourage you to look to God for your joy and I promise He will look back upon you with a smile!

Thanks for reading,

Tyler

Pride vs Humility

Long ago a good friend gave me a several page study on Pride and Humility by an unknown author. Lets stop and take a look the Pride in everyday life. It hides in many shapes and disguises.

Pride cares what people think... Humility cares what God thinks. How often do we make choices or act a certain way because how we want to be thought of?

Pride feels like it has arrived... Humility knows where it is going. How many times do we stop to focus on where we are going? What would our lives be like if we simply thought about where our actions lead us?

Pride creates diloyalty and undermines authority. In our day to day lives... what are we saying about those in authority over us? Our family, our church, our law makers... what do we have to say about them? If we truely stop to think, how many times do we have negative comments about our leaders? Can we do it better? God gifts each of us in a given area. How often do we step into someone elses gifting because we think we are better skilled?

Pride concentrates on what has not been done. In our lives, do we focus more on what has been done for us? Do we focus on what still has yet to be done? If someone does something for us, is the next thing out of our mouth "why haven't you ____?" That is pride speaking. Humility shows when we say "thank you" and might even do something for them!

I think that each of us has pride hiding in our life somewhere. I pray that all of us can discover its foothold and bind it up! I challenge you this week to each day, look at each thing you do. Examine you actions and decide wether it is an action based in Pride or Humility. Think about how you think and why you think it. Ponder the idea that Pride is somewhere... Lets all make an effort to remove it! Please take time to say thank you and humble yourself. If we don't humble ourselves... somebody else will do it for you.

Thanks for thinking deep thoughts with me!
Please feel free to let me know what you think,

Tyler

FYI

Just a quick FYI...

I haven't posted in a couple day and probably won't post much for a few more days because I just had dental surgery done and am COMPLETELY out of it! So If you have any questions or something you would like to see me post about, let me know. Otherwise, I probably will just spend the next few days resting.

Also, A neat thing happened the other day. I got offically accepted to go to Uganda for 1 month this coming summer! It is going to incredible ministering to all those kids there who are orphans and sex slaves! They are so lost and so in need of a Saviour! However, it costs a great deal to be able to go there. I am in need of about $5000. If you are interested in supporting me as a missionary, PLEASE let me know! I also need prayer support too, so if you want to partner with me in any way, just comment and let me know!

Thanks,
Tyler