If you focus on the pothole you are sure to hit it.
Life is like this, if we want to live joyful lives then we need to focus on: gratitude, and being thankful.
It is easy to see what we don’t have or how others are living and not appreciate all that we have.
Just living in Australia is a great thing, when you consider the other places in the world we could live where they don‘t have access to the health, education or living standards we have access to in our country.
We all have so much to be thankful for.
When we are encouraging other people, it makes us feel good.
When we take the opportunity to assist anyone in need, our focus turns from ourselves and what is going on for us, to seeing what can be done to alleviate the difficulties surrounding someone else.
There are over 150 verses in the Old Testament and over 60 verses in the New Testament that mention joy or being joyful.
Having joy mentioned so often in the Bible reflects the significance of being joyful in the way we live our lives.
Joy in the Bible is not talking about being happy, for happiness is reliant on the circumstances surrounding our situation, our health, wealth, relationships, our work and play.
If our lives are centred around a need to be happy we will be going up and down emotionally and our life will feel very unstable.
The Biblical understanding of joy is a much deeper feeling, it happens as we recognise and live in God’s relationship with us.
In John 3:16 it says, “For God so loved us that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
Each of us can live in a relationship with a God who dearly loves us and wants the best for us; what a joy this is, and we need to express it to God and others.
Because of this unchanging relationship God offers us we can be joyful no matter what is going on around us.
It takes intentionality to rejoice in all circumstances but when we do, it makes life positive and pleasurable, and enables us to keep doing mundane things in a positive way.
And it enables us to have a positive outlook on what is going on around us in the world.
Joy comes through knowing Jesus as your saviour.
You can know his peace through realising you are so special to him that he died and rose again for you.
That he knows who you are, why you are here, and that he has a purpose for your life.
Jesus doesn’t just leave us how we are but wants to change us and grow us more like him.
— Alan Corby, Pastoral Care Worker at River City Christian College and the Echuca Church of Christ.
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