By Treva Susuras

The joy of the Lord is my strength. Thing is I get to get up every morning and decide if I am going to be happy or not. My joy is not decided by my situation and circumstances around me. I get to decide every morning if I am going to have joy or not.

James 1:2-4 says

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

There is a huge difference in being happy and having joy. When something good happens, it makes us happy. People make us happy or sad, things that are happening around us can dictate to us if we are happy or not. That causes us to ride the roller coaster of emotion. We are up and then were down. Nothing stays the same and if we are not careful, we get lost in all the emotion.

Bad things can cause us to lose hope, and when that happens, we lose our joy. We might try and find joy in other things like unhealthy relationships, or life issues of many kinds. If we don’t feel happy, we try things we think will make us happy or even things that will just take pain and hurt away.

Truth is, the Lord allows the storms in our lives to give us strength. To teach us, and bring us to a mature place. Can we push through all the trials and storms? Can we stay faithful to the Lord when we feel like He doesn’t hear us?

When things are going bad all around us do we fall into stinking thinking like, “this will never work out” or “I can’t do this, it’s too hard” …

When we fall into various trials do we count it all joy? We have to train ourselves to know that it’s only for a season, it will pass and if I stay connected to Jesus and not to things or substances or people, I will make it. Once I get that in my thinking, I will come through it and it will be over and I will have learned how to do it. Eventually it will get easer and easer. Before you know it, you will have trials and get through them just fine because Jesus always pulls you through it. You will know that from experience.

Stay focused on Jesus and His word. Don’t look at all the can not’s and see all the can’s or possibilities. The word says we can say to this mountain be removed and cast into the sea and believe with all our hearts and do not doubt it will be done for us. Mark 11:23

Paul says in Philippians 4 I know what it is to be in need or to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content. I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.

So, here’s the deal… if we can learn to focus on Jesus and ask Him what we can learn from our trial, He will teach us. We will learn He is always in control, and He will work things out. We always want to jump in and help Him and most times we make things worse.

We get impatient and think, well He is not doing… or He doesn’t care…I think He should…

This kind of thinking leads us to act on our own. We can’t always change our situation so we choose to make ourselves happy with unhealthy, temporary, solutions.

I have a better idea. Let’s let Jesus work things out and let’s try and keep our faith in Him. He has all the answers and we make things worse than they have to be with our emotional thinking.

What is it that James says in chapter 1? Oh, ya,,,

Consider it pure joy whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

If this blog has ministered to you please leave a comment. We’d love to hear from you! God Bless you on your journey to find Joy!!