June is the month of JOY. However, we won’t
have joy unless we’re intentional about it. The enemy knows the powerful force
of joy therefore he will try everything to steal our joy. He will even use
people who are close to us to rob our joy.
Often we use joy and happiness as
interchangeable words. But there’s a major difference in these two words.
Happiness is defined by our circumstances – what’s going on around us
determines our level of happiness. Joy is
a gift of the spirit. It’s an inside job that affects our outside world!
One way we can keep our joy is to identify our “joy-stealer” buttons. We
all have areas in our lives that push our button. Maybe it’s the traffic. Maybe
it’s customer complaints or making cold calls. Maybe it’s certain individual or
even a family member. I used to have a friend who always made me feel like I
wasn’t doing enough for him. He had a good heart to help others. But for some
reason, he was always sarcastic how I wasn’t calling him enough or meet with him.
I did my very best trying to please him but there came a time when it was stealing
my joy. It is not our job to keep
everybody happy. I had to turn him over to God and move on. What/who is
your joy-stealer? Identify them and then try to get rid of that.
Some of you live and work with
difficult people. I’m not suggesting you get rid of them. In these situations,
you can pray for God’s grace to be sufficient for you. Overdose on the positive before and after you deal with them. I’ve found
that most of the time when we’re caught in these situations, God is putting
things in motion to take us to a higher level. New level; new devil! He’s trying to make us immune to negative people. Don’t
be mad. Be glad. God is trying to promote
you.
Another way you can keep your joy is not to focus on negative communications.
A phone call, email, FB comment or a face to face confrontation can steal our
joy. Don’t let that happen to you. When you meditate on a negative phone call,
email message or a conversation, you let that person have control over you
again and again. Resist the urge to play
that phone call in your mind over and over. Don’t read that email or comment
twice. Learn to shake off the negative and move on to the positive. This was
such a hard lesson for me but I’m getting better. You can too! Keep away from anything that is draining
your time, effort, energy and joy on a regular basis.
In
order to keep your joy you have to have a relaxed, easy-going attitude.
The more uptight we are the more easily we get irritable. When we live a
stressful life – packing our schedule with appointments, procrastinating, being
undisciplined we’ll lose our joy quickly. Let’s
build better habits. Get up each morning and pray, “No matter what or who comes my way, I’m going to enjoy this day. So help
me God!” Sometimes, all it takes is an attitude adjustment on our part to
keep our joy.
What to do when we’re tempted to lose
our joy because of our faith? This happened to Paul and many other people today.
Paul was in house arrest when he wrote to the Philippians, “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!” Friend, if
Paul can rejoice after all that he suffered for the Gospel, so can we. The
Lord says, “My grace is sufficient for
you.”
Friend, joy is a powerful force. When you
have joy in your heart, don’t forget to inform your face. Have a cheerful countenance.
Shake off the criticisms. Overdose on God’s grace. Be an easy-going person. Be filled with the Holy Spirit so that JOY can
burst out of you to touch, influence and change your world. I’m praying for
you!
“You give him power to keep himself calm in the days of
adversity” (Psalm 94:13 AMP).
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