...Be thankful and say so to Him, bless and affectionately praise His name! Psalm 100:4 AMPC Being thankful is important, and God's Word is filled with instructions and reminders to give thanks and be thankful. The words thanks and thanksgiving appear in approximately 100 Bible verses, and we're told to give thanks 73 times. Anything the Holy Spirit repeats that often must be important to my life and yours. Our gratitude belongs first to God, because without Him, we would have nothing. God is good.
What is faith? And what does it look like to actually live by faith? These are important questions because we receive and experience the blessings God has for us through faith. Hebrews 11:1 (AMP) says, "Faith is the assurance (title deed, confirmation) of things hoped for (divinely guaranteed), and the evidence of things not seen [the conviction of their reality - faith comprehends as fact what cannot be experienced by the physical senses]."
One of the greatest lessons I've learned is that you can't be both selfish and happy. I know this is true through my own personal experience but more importantly, the Bible has some things to say about the attitude we should have about "self." For example, love is not selfish. In the Amplified Bible, 1 Corinthians 13:5 says love "is not self-seeking." In 1 Corinthians 15:31, the apostle Paul said, "...I die daily [I face death and die to self]," which basically means he was not self-seeking but instead focused on doing what God called him to do with his life.
Do you spend time worrying about things in life that are beyond your control? Are you constantly trying to figure situations out? If that's you, I want to let you know that you can rest in God and trust Him to fight your battles for you. It took years for me to learn that worry is useless. All it did was aggravate me and it didn't change a thing. Worrying is like sitting in a rocking chair and rocking all day - it keeps you busy, but you get absolutely nowhere. At the end of the day, you're still sitting right where you were when you started.
Throughout the years I've been teaching God's Word, people have asked me, "Joyce, how do you live the Christian life?" My answer surprises a lot of people. I tell them, "You can't live the Christian life, but God can live it through you!" One of the greatest lessons I have ever learned is that we can't change ourselves - it is only by God's grace that we can overcome our weaknesses and become more like Him. In John 15:5 (NIV), Jesus says, "I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."
He'll play on our insecurities and, like a broken record, bombard us with the same things, over and over. He'll tell us things like: "You're always messing things up—how can God love you?" "You'll never be as good as your brother or sister." Or maybe you've heard this one: "You can't do that—you're not smart enough!" He wants us to feel bad about ourselves, then compare ourselves with everybody else. But here's the problem: If we don't recognize his lies and replace them with truth from God's Word, we begin to believe these things about ourselves and begin saying them out of our own mouths.
Do you enjoy your life? Are you living with real peace, joy and fulfillment? Or are you stuck in the pain of past mistakes, abuse, injustices or some other hurt you've endured? I know what it's like to live in "survival mode," just getting through each day and dreading a lot of what I had to do. I also know how life-changing it can be to discover the truth that God wants us to enjoy our lives. John 10:10 (AMP) says, "The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance [to the full, till it overflows]." Before I discovered this Scripture, I didn't understand that God meant for me to have a joy-filled life. I loved God and was a born-again Christian, and yet I was miserable!
It's almost hard for me to believe that my husband, Dave, and I have been married for over 50 years. When I look back, I am still amazed at what the Lord has done in our relationship and just how far we've come. I will never forget the day we first met. One evening I was outside washing my mother's car, when Dave pulled up in front of the house with his friend who lived upstairs. Trying to flirt with me, he leaned out his window and said, "When you're finished with that car, would you like to wash mine?" I sarcastically snapped back, "If you want your car washed, buddy, then wash it yourself!"
Did you know that God's joy is inside you? As God's children, we have the Holy Spirit living inside us, and with Him come all the fruits of the Spirit, including joy (see Galatians 5:22-23). Even though there are so many challenges going on in the world right now, we can still have joy. In fact, it's incredibly important that we hold on to our joy, because the joy of the Lord is our strength (see Nehemiah 8:10). You might be thinking, Joyce, that sounds nice, but I'm not experiencing it—I'm pretty sure I've lost my joy.
Every day, we are faced with a decision: Will we respond to life's circumstances according to God's Word or will we react emotionally? The initial temptation is to react emotionally, but in every circumstance, it's truly your decision. Let's examine three circumstances you're going to have to face at some point in your life. I've also included some questions to ask yourself, which I encourage you to answer honestly. They will give you a good idea of how big a part your feelings play in these circumstances.
