DEVOTION: June 3
It’s there when I’m irritated. When my family makes me crazy and when work is frustrating and social media makes me judgmental and cynical.
It’s there when I’m anxious. When I can’t find answers to my big questions and when doubts creep in and when I worry about not just tomorrow but all the tomorrows in the foreseeable future.
It’s there when I’m sad. When I’m disappointed in people and when loss feels too great and when I finally pinpoint the exact emotion I’m feeling and give it the space it’s due.
It shows up in the littlest ways. It’s in Greg’s goofiness and Paxton’s goal in life to make me laugh and Jaana’s insistence I scratch her back.
It’s in texts from friends with hilarious memes and birthday celebrations and worshipping corporately at church.
It’s in the big and little wins my kids have and the answers to prayer I see in real time. It’s in the big and little losses my kids have and the different answers God gives because He knows best.
It’s in a perfectly-timed scripture and desperately-needed word of encouragement and that sermon that seems prepared just for you, just for that moment.
Joy is a fruit that gives and gives regardless of circumstance and situation, persons or peoples, feelings or facts. And the thing is…joy shows up when I choose to find it. When I take all my irritations and annoyances and lay them before Jesus, asking Him to replace it. It shows up when my heart is ready to receive. It’s mine to have, any time of day, no matter what.
I tend to forget that. I’m usually too busy focusing on the negatives. But the thing is, the root word for joy in Greek means to be glad, to be well, thrive. I need that. Desperately! I need to grab hold of a joy that will help me be glad more than mad, be well in the midst of worry, thrive in the midst of death.
Maybe I’m not alone? How can we commit today to choose to pick up and find joy regardless of what’s surrounding us? How can we find the joy of the Lord right where we are?
“You haven’t tried this before, but begin now. Ask, using my name, and you will receive, and your cup of joy will overflow.” (John 16:24, The Living Bible)
– Monica