Are you fighting some sort of battle right now? May I recommend a book for you. Margaret Feinberg’s brand-new book Fight Back With Joy: Celebrate More. Regret Less. Stare Down Your Greatest Fears. Margaret’s fight was against cancer but all of us are in some kind of fight. Life is not easy and battles are certain. Hence we need to learn how to fight back in order to thrive in the midst of them. And this book shows us how to do that.

Margaret states “Everyone who wakes to confrontation and crisis—whether you picked the fight or the fight picked you—has an important choice: which weaponry will you choose? Cynicism and spite? Complaint and control? Or perhaps you are prone to deny and withdraw. To let your fleshy heart turn to stone. But there is another arsenal available to the daughters and sons of God.”

And that’s joy, believe or not. And it works. Because “Joy is a far more dynamic, forceful weapon than most of us realize. The abiding sense that you are fiercely loved by God? That kind of joy empowers you to rise above any circumstance.”

Margaret explains “When we fight back with joy, we no longer size the character of God according to our circumstances, but we size our circumstances according to the character of God and his great affection for us.” And that’s the key. When we are with God, we are safe and sound no matter what.

Margaret continues “Practicing defiant joy is the declaration that the darkness does not and will not win. When we fight back with joy, we embrace a reality that is more real than what we’re enduring and we awaken to the deepest reality of our identity as beloved, joyful children of God.”

The main thing in fighting back with joy is to embrace joy as our heritage, purpose, and destiny. We were created for joy. We are called to live in joy. And joy is where are headed. Embracing joy is what Jesus wanted for each of us.

I have told you these things, that My joy and delight may be in you, and that your joy and gladness may be of full measure and complete and overflowing. (John 15:11, AMP)

It’s time for each of us to start embracing joy as God’s amazing gift to us. It is indeed our heritage, purpose, and destiny. It’s time for each of us to start practicing joy, embodying it by how we respond to the circumstances before us. It is indeed possible to fight back with joy.

 

Gracious God,
Thank you for creating us for joy.
Thank you that joy is our heritage, purpose, and destiny.
Show us how to always embrace and embody it.
Pour out joy upon joy, Lord.
We gratefully receive all of it.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen

Q4U: How do you define joy? How do you live out joy?

Be blessed, my fellow pilgrim, as you embrace joy as your heritage!

Image courtesy of Margaret Feinberg. Linking up today with Unite the Bloggersphere and #tellhisstory.