Do you know how to keep joy? How to be always joyful? Happiness seems to come and go. In order to be happy we want more of things that used to make us happy. More stuff, more experiences, more fun. Always more. But that thrill-seeking leads us astray. Happiness-hunting gets us into trouble. More is never enough. It is a cycle to unhappiness.

Why is everyone hungry for more? “More, more,” they say.
“More, more.”
I have God’s more-than-enough,
More joy in one ordinary day
Than they get in all their shopping sprees.
At day’s end I’m ready for sound sleep,
For you, God, have put my life back together.
(Psalm 4:5-8. MSG,*)

But happiness is not joy. And joy is not elusive. Most of us just look for it in the wrong places. The real joy is only found in Jesus. If we really want to learn how to keep joy, we need to become friends with Jesus.

Because when we abide in Christ, joy is always present.
When we live in grace, joy is continually filling us.
When we stay with Jesus, joy stays with us.

Because God is the source of joy. Our joy will never run out if we abide in him. Even when circumstances are difficult and life is hard. We don’t need to conserve joy in order to always have it. Instead we are asked to pass it on in order to have even more of joy.

When everyone else wants to hoard more and more to themselves, we are counterculturally asked to have less and less.

But that’s the secret for overflowing joy:
The closer to Jesus we stay, the more joy we experience.
The more joy we share, the more joyful we are.

 

 

Gracious God,
You sent Jesus that we may have life in abundance.
Don’t let the enemy steal our joy.
Instead let your joy always stay with us
and stir in us even more joy.
So the world could see a glimpse of your awesomeness in us.
So the world could taste and see what’s real joy.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen

Q4U: Do you know how to keep joy?

Be blessed, my fellow pilgrim, as you

* [As you might have noticed, I enjoy reading the Bible in different translations and love comparing them. I have started linking the Bible verses to Biblegateway.com so you can easily read (and compare) them in the different versions I’ve used while preparing each post.]

Image courtesy of Mike Sanchez, design by Mari-Anna Stålnacke. Linking up today with Faith-filled Fridays, Five Minute Friday and Faith Jam.