Cultivating Joy

Cultivating gratitude and joy means letting go of our fears and embracing gratitude. Brene Brown talks about this concept in her book "The Gifts of Imperfection". It makes so much sense to me, especially since I have noticed my lack of joy this week. Now I am understanding that being joyful is a daily practice. Our choice to be joyful is connected to our spirit of gratitude. When we wake up in the morning and are thankful for the life that we have been given we are instantly full of joy.

"The difference between happiness and joy is the difference between a human emotion that's connected to circumstances and a spiritual way of engaging with the world that's connected to practicing gratitude."

The root words for happiness and joy in Greek reflect this definition. The root word for happiness is Makarios, "which was used to describe the freedom of the rich from normal cares and worries or to describe a person who received some form of good fortune, such as money or health."

The Greek word for joy is Chairo. "Chairo was described by the ancient Greeks as the culmination of being and the good mood of the soul." It is something that is only found in God and "comes with virtue and wisdom."

I especially love this quote from author Lynne Twist, in her book "The Soul of Money": "For many of us, our first waking thought of the day is I didn't get enough sleep. The next one is I don't have enough time. Whether true or not, that thought of not enough occurs to us automatically before we even think to question or examine it. We spend most of the hours and the days of our lives curing, explaining, complaining, or worrying about what we don't have enough of".

Brown says, "We are starving from a lack of gratitude."

Brown also discusses how our fears can keep us from being joyful. Sometimes we are so afraid to feel joy because we are waiting for the last shoe to drop. Unfortunately, holding back from embracing the joy in those beautiful moments of life just robs us from experiencing life to its fullest.

Jesus did not come to give us life but to give us life abundantly! I'm going to live life the way He intended.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Russo Dr,San Jose,United States

Good news

I am reading an insightful book about how to counsel one another the way Jesus did (Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands by Paul David Tripp). As we seek to understand our own hearts and what God is doing in our lives, it is so important to understand God's timeline and his character. When we think about how many years it took for God to send Jesus, it doesn't always make sense to us, until we understand His timeline. He says that it was the perfect time. Historical events, the economy, political upheaval, etc. made everyone's hearts ready for Jesus. If he did all that for Jesus' coming, he'll do that for us in our lives, too.

"The time has come. Jesus is saying, 'This is what God has been working on. All of history has been moving toward this one moment.' God had not forgotten or lost interest in humanity. Since that horrible first fall into sin, he had been bringing the world to this day. What looked pointless and out-of-control was, in fact, the unfolding of God's wonderful story of redemption, which reached its crescendo with the coming of Christ."

"As sinners, we have a natural bent to turn away from the creator to serve the creation." We are constantly seeking to fill the void in our lives with various things and we end up spending so much of our time digging under a mound of trash and untruths in order to find a small shred of insight that we think provides the answers we have been searching for. This insight gives us hope and order but this is only temporary. It doesn't give us the long-lasting hope and change that we so desperately need. Jesus is the only one who can do that.

As believers we are called by God to help others see that truth. "We gently turn them away from the mound, and joyfully turn them to the man, Jesus Christ. This is the essence of personal ministry. "

I'm excited to learn more about how to do this so I'm sure I will keep sharing.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone