PreciouOne eMagazine

7 Secrets
to
Keeping
Your Joy
Are you enjoying your life? If not, God wants you to. Jesus said in
John 10:10 (The Amplified Bible) that Satan comes to steal, kill
and destroy, but He came that we "may have and enjoy life, and
have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows)." I believe this
means God wants us to enjoy every part of our lives-not just little bits and
pieces here and there.
Many people today live their lives in
a constant state of stress and turmoil.
But as Christians, we don't have to
live that way. Why? Because God's
Spirit lives in us, and a fruit of His
Spirit is joy.
Now this joy is not just a "happy
feeling" based on our circumstances
or on the things we possess - it is an
unshakable stability in our inner man
(spirit). Joy can range anywhere from
a calm delight to extreme hilarity,
and it is the joy of the Lord that is our
strength (see Neh. 8:10)
Many years ago, I spent most of
my time uptight and upset about
something. The reason for this was
because my happiness was based
entirely on circumstances. If things
were going my way, I was happy.
If we had money in the bank, I was
happy.
If it was Friday night, a holiday, or
if we were on vacation, I had joy.
But since these things accounted
for only a small part of my life, the
majority of the time I was sad and
discontented.
As my relationship with God grew, I
got tired of being happy only if and
when things were going my way. I
was weary and worn out from the
constant mood swings, and I just
wanted to be happy.
God's Word said that I could live my
life with joy, and I finally decided that
I was going to do whatever it took to
have it. As I really started to seek God
about this issue, He began to reveal
to me several important principles
that are critical to receiving and
keeping our joy. Following are seven
of these life-changing essentials:
1 Be led by the Spirit. One of the
most dynamic ways to keep our joy
is to allow the Holy Spirit to lead us in
the way we should go. Proverbs 16:9
says, "A man's mind plans his way,
but the Lord directs his steps and
makes them sure."
Probably one of the hardest things in
the world for people is to walk away
from doing something they have
done for a long time. In many ways,
I can't stand to do the same thing for
too long. For example, I have several
pairs of pajamas because I just don't
like to look at the same ones all the
time. But in certain areas I'm not like
that-I would probably be happy with
the same hairstyle until Jesus comes!
If we do the same thing the same
way too long, it just becomes old and
stale, and it means nothing. But one
of the things I have learned about the
Holy Spirit is that if we follow Him, He
keeps everything fresh. Life does not
get stale when we follow the Lord.
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