Thank-Filled Life = Joy-filled Life

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Oh, how I love a party. My family loves to mark birthdays, holidays, and other special occasions with big celebrations. The honoree selects the menu, and we always have a theme and color scheme. We take plenty of pictures, laugh, and tell tall tales on each other. I recently married and was blessed with a bridal shower given by the Women of Worth Bible study that I lead. What a celebration! About 75 women gathered to show their love through gifts, food, and even a good humored “roasting.” The day overflowed with love and laughter. At each of these occasions my family and friends honored God and thanked him for his abundant blessings. These celebrations are joy-filled occasions. It seems easy to be joyful in celebrations, but how do we maintain joy and consistently live a joy-filled life. Paul tells us in I Thessalonians 5:16-18, “Be joyful always; pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” How can we be “joyful always?”

Psalm 100 in the psalm of thanksgiving and tells us how to live a joy-filled life.

¹ Shout with joy to the Lord, all the earth!
²     Worship the Lord with gladness.
    Come before him, singing with joy.
³ Acknowledge that the Lord is God!
    He made us, and we are his.
    We are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
⁴ Enter his gates with thanksgiving;
    go into his courts with praise.
    Give thanks to him and praise his name.
⁵ For the Lord is good.
    His unfailing love continues forever,
    and his faithfulness continues to each generation. Psalm 100

Take note of the actions the psalmist tells us to take in order to have a thank-filled, joy-filled life.

1.   Shout with joy to the Lord.

2.    Worship the Lord with gladness
3.    Come before him, singing with joy.
4.    Acknowledge that the Lord is God.
5.    Enter his gates with thanksgiving.
6.    Go to his courts with praise.
7.    Give thanks to him.
8.    Praise his name.

 All 8 actions pertain to honoring, thanking, and praising God. When we celebrate God with praise and thanksgiving, we experience the joy of the Lord.  Joy and thankfulness go together. The Psalmist tells us the reason to worship and praise God is because he is good. God is only good; he cannot be anything but good. That is reason to celebrate. Knowing that his love and faithfulness will always be with us is cause for celebration. This psalm tells us a joy-filled life is overflowing with thankfulness. In order to be filled with joy, we need to continually be thankful to God for his goodness and blessings. If you are missing out on the joy-filled life, check your gratitude meter and make sure you're living a life focused on praise and thanksgiving.

Positve Proactive Emotions

Sunday, March 31, 2013

What is your emotional cycle? We all have one? Do you have a cycle of positive proactive emotions or negative re-active emotions? In order to create more joy in our lives, we need to learn how to create a cycle of emotions that lead to peace and joy. Christ desires for us to live in joy.

These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. John 15:11

  Many of us do well with positive emotions UNTIL someone “rains on our parade!” Then we often feel we are entitled to a time of self-pity and negativity. When circumstances don’t go our way or someone hurts us or makes us mad.

 

First of all, let’s make sure we understand what “negative emotions you believe you deserve” means.

 

• Holding grudges against someone who hurts us
• Sulking in response to being disappointed
• Giving others a cold shoulder if they’ve offended us
• Keeping an unforgiving spirit against someone
• Saying mean things
• Ignoring someone on purpose
• Going into our cave of seclusion
• Avoidance
• Procrastination
• Choosing to live in denial and ignorance
• Refusing to talk it out
• Being closed minded
• Being “snippety-snappity” – (My coined word but we all know what it means to snap at people)
• Being brash and harsh
• Having to be right
• Others? _____________________________________

We find ways to justify negative emotions that take us down into a pit of sadness, anger, and withdrawal. It’s important to examine each situation that has a potential to draw us down and examine what our overall goal is. Consider these questions:

• Do you want to be right or happy?
• Do these responses move you toward a goal for a joy-filled life or away from that goal?
• Do these responses bless others?
• Do these responses glorify God?

 If your goal is to live a life pleasing to God, one that draws you closer to him and to draw others to him, then do your emotions match your goal?

 

We all have negative triggers from time to time. A time of reflection allows us to think about how to effectively respond when we’ve been hurt.

Animals have trigger responses. They have reflexes that allow them to respond without thought. On the other hand, humans are the only known species to have highly developed communications skills. We are able to reflect and make judgments about our actions and others’ actions. God designed us with the ability to make moral choices. And God has given his most valued creation something more – the ability to pause between an action and our response. There is a gap between the two.

We get to choose how to respond. Even in a split second we can ask ourselves, “What is my goal in this situation?”

 

It is Christ’s desire that we be filled with the joy that only can be found through him. By being proactive about our emotional goals, we can be ready in the gap. What we do in the gap determines our joy level!

 

Worry Time

Thursday, February 28, 2013

Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 2 Corinthians 9:6

Our thoughts, like our actions, reap results. If we think critically, we will reap those criticisms. If we think anxious, fear-filled, worried thoughts, we will reap that anxiety. If we want to live a joy-filled life, we must keep our thoughts fixed on things of God. It is hard to live of joy when we live with worry.

Do you ever wonder how to sow good thoughts when you feel as if the weight of the world is on your shoulder? Do you really desire to dwell on positive joy-filled thoughts but have serious problems that seem to take front place in your mind? Do you really want a joy-filled life but know that you have issues that you must sort through?

Have you ever considered scheduling “worry time” in order to deal with pressing issues?

The July 2011 issue of the Journal of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics reports on a study done in the Netherlands involved a technique called stimulus control. Participants were taught to compartmentalize their worry by setting aside a specific half-hour each day to think about worries and consider solutions. They were to deliberately avoid thinking about those issues for the rest of the day. Researchers found that the participants who used this technique before they began therapy regimens reduced their anxiety, stress, and depressed symptoms significantly more than those who only used standard anxiety treatments.

Patients were taught four steps to less worry.

1. Identify and realize when you are worrying.

2. Set aside a time and place to think about these worries.

3. When you begin to worry, postpone it, and focus on the task at hand.

4. Use the “worry time” to try to solve the problems your worries present.

This process is a proactive way to focus on the problems that worry you and address them through problem solving. The “worry time” is not spent wringing hands and agonizing on issues. Instead, it is spent dealing with a solution.

I encourage you to add a time of prayer and meditation to your “worry time” in order to allow God to reveal to you discernment and direction. God wants to carry our burdens and give us a life of peace. Give your burdens to the LORD, and he will take care of you (Psalm 55:22).

Giving our worries to God is an important step in reaping a joy-filled life.

Grace, Gratitude, Favor = Joy

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

The Spirit of the Lord is on me…to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. 

 Luke 4:18-19

As I consider my “resolve” for 2013, I am focusing on the connectedness of four powerful words: grace, gratitude, favor, and joy. As I look forward to this new year, I’m vowing to live in the favor and blessings of God’s grace and to show gratitude for both during 2013. This right living will result in an abiding joy that can only be found in God.

As I have focused these last few weeks on the cycle of grace, gratitude, favor, and joy, I’ve come to realize that it is “all Greek to me!” The Greek interpretation of these words has been eye opening, thought provoking, and has assured me that we have the potential for a joy-filled life because of God’s amazing grace.

Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 4:15 that grace increases thanksgiving. He evokes the image of the cyclical aspects of God’s grace and our gratitude. As more people experience God’s grace, there is more thanksgiving and God’s name is glorified.

The Amplified Bible puts it this way

For all [these] things are [taking place] for your sake, so that the more grace (divine favor and spiritual blessing) extends to more and more people and multiplies through the many, the more thanksgiving may increase [and redound] to the glory of God.

The connection between the Greek words for “grace” and “gratitude” is powerful. The Greek word for gratitude (eucharistian) is built on the word for grace (charis). A simple translation might read, “It is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase gratitude to the glory of God.” We truly experience God’s grace when we have a heart of gratitude.

Charis or grace is God’s merciful kindness, our unmerited favor. The New Testament Greek Lexicon describes charis as God exerting his holy influence on our souls. He “keeps, strengthens, increases them in Christian faith, knowledge, affection, and kindles them to the exercise of the Christian values.” God reaches out to us with his grace and wants to change our lives. He wants a close abiding relationship with us so that he can bless us in ways that we can never imagine. Gratitude is our response to his grace. When we allow ourselves to fully experience the grace of God, we want to show God our gratitude.

To further illustrate the connection between grace, gratitude, and favor, let’s look at the Old Testament. The Hebrew word chen, meaning grace or favor, is the closest translation of the Greek word charis. In Proverbs we are called on to store God’s commandments in our hearts then you will find favor with both God and people, and you will earn a good reputation. Proverbs 3:4. Once again we see the relationship between God’s amazing grace and favor.

The English translation of these words – grace, gratitude, favor - has caused us to separate our understanding of words that were intended to be connected. Grace, gratitude, and favor are all related, linked, intertwined!

This cycle of grace and gratitude continues as we develop our personal relationship with God. We live in his grace, show him our gratitude, and experience his abundant favor and blessings. The final word in this equation is joy. The Greek word for joy (chara) has the same root word as grace and gratitude. Strong’s Concordance defines chara as joy because of grace. Joy is the fruit of a right relationship with God. Jesus spoke of joy to his disciples shortly before his crucifixion. "I have told you this so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow! ” (John 15:11). He wanted them to love him, to obey him, and to abide in him and promised that in doing so, they would be filled with joy.

For 2013 I want the charis, eucharistian, chen, and chara life! Yes, I want a life filled with grace, gratitude, favor, and joy. The principle of sowing and reaping can bring a life of ultimate joy. When we sow love, joy, encouragement, and peace into others’ lives, we will reap a life of blessings and favor. Scripture tells us how to enjoy this beautiful cycle of God’s grace, gratitude, favor, and joy.

Accept God’s grace and forgiveness.

For those who find me find life and receive favor from the LORD. Proverbs 8:35

Grow in a relationship with Him.

May God give you more and more grace (undeserved favor) and peace (Shalom of God) as you grow in your knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord. 2 Peter 1:2

Show gratitude to God.

Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. I Thessalonians 5:18

Live in expectation of His abundant favor.

And God is able to make all grace (every favor and earthly blessing) come to you in abundance, so that you may always and under all circumstances and whatever the need be self-sufficient [possessing enough to require no aid or support and furnished in abundance for every good work and charitable donation]. (AMP) 2 Corinthians 9:8

Experience the joy of God’s grace, blessings, and favor.

"I have told you this so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow! ” (John 15:11).

May 2013 bring you all the joy God has in store for you as you live in his grace and experience his favor with all gratitude!

Think on These Things Bracelet

Thursday, June 23, 2011

I have a favorite pair of pants with the manufacturer’s logo sewn into the leg in the shape of a sticker. Every time I wear the pants, someone tells me my sticker is showing and tries to pull it off. Each time I explain that the sticker is really the logo of the pants and then I mention the brand. It’s a great marketing strategy! Along the same lines, have you ever forgotten to clip the tag from your clothes and displayed to the world the price of your new garment? I know I have! Displaying the price tag of clothing can be embarrassing, but not nearly as embarrassing as displaying an ugly attitude. Ugly thoughts lead to an ugly attitude.

Our thoughts either move us toward our God-given potential or away from it. In either case you can rest assured your thoughts are showing. Our thoughts lead to emotions, physical feelings, and physical actions. What we think will eventually show up! If our thoughts eventually show up in our words and actions, then the first step toward changing our circumstances is to change our thoughts. If ugly thoughts show up as ugly actions, it makes sense that joy-filled thoughts will show up as a joy-filled life.

How then can we turn our thoughts toward God? Right thinking is a choice. We have control over our thoughts. It usually take 21 days to switch a bad habit. This week I’m providing you a strategy to get rid of your negative thinking in 21 days!
Think on These Things Bracelet

The Think on These Things bracelet is a tool that
...monitors how often you think negatively
...helps you track your progress toward becoming negative free.

Use the Philippians 4:8 thinking model to help you think positively and live a joy-filled life.

Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Philippians 4:8 (NLT)

Simply put the bracelet on either wrist and every time you think a negative thought, switch the bracelet to the other wrist. The goal is to go 21 consecutive days without negativity or switching the bracelet.

When the bad thought enters your mind, replace it by following these steps.
1. Rename it – Tell yourself this thought is a negative, bad, ungodly, unkind, etc. thought
2. Re-frame it – Focus on a positive or distracting thought
3. Redirect your actions to something uplifting, fun, or engaging.

Contact me at education@christplace.org, and I’ll be happy to send you a bracelet and instruction card.

Your thoughts are showing! Do you need to switch them? Switch your thoughts not your bracelet!