looking for joy

We're very busy. Sometimes, a lot of the time, we feel overwhelmed. We're tired.

It is easy for me to let all of the "things" of this life weigh me down. Sometimes to the point that I dread completing tasks. The Lord has been teaching me lately that if we are faithfully serving Him we may feel busy and tired because we are loving God's people.

It is my hearts desire to serve in ministry with a full heart. It is my hearts desire to parent my children with a full heart. It is my hearts desire to love my husband, friends, family, and church with a full heart. But sometimes I feel like I can not. 

I realized that I was missing something; JOY. I knew my heart was answering the call to serve in my church, parenting, and relationships with my friends and my husband but I was not living and serving

noun
1. a feeling of great pleasure and happiness.

with joy. 

It has been my prayer of late to search for joy. I've prayed that in everything I do the Lord would help me to have a joyful heart. That doesn't mean I'm skipping around with pig tails and a cheesy smile saying, "I have Joy!" I couldn't handle that! However; I have searched for that deep place within my heart where I tend to grumble, complain, and dread commitments. After identifying those places I began to pray for joy in those areas. I pray that the Lord would take that grumbling and replace it with happiness. That He would take that complaint and replace it with compassion. That He would take that dread and replace it with anticipation as to what He is going to do!

We live in a fast paced, over stressed, and over committed world. While it is crucial to pray about commitments before you make them it is also possible to be doing exactly what God has asked of you and still feel stressed and frustrated. I encourage you to evaluate those places deep within you that grumble and complain to God. The mundane and hectic tasks of life will never go away. Will you live life with a constant grumble or will you live life with joy?

I am so thankful the Lord is teaching me this lesson. My last post was about anxiety. Trust me, when you pray for joy in situations anxiety will not come. I have found when I take joy in a situation the Lord gives me an insurmountable peace in Him.

Quote from the Voice translators:

"It takes a powerful, spiritual presence to transform 

anxiety into joyous satisfaction."

"This is the good life - my heart is glad, my soul is full of joy, and my body is at rest. Who could want for more? You will not abandon me to experience death and the grave or leave me to rot alone. Instead, You direct me on the path that leads to a beautiful life. As I walk with You, the pleasures are 

never-ending, and I know true joy and contentment."

Psalm 16: 9-11 (the Voice)

~Joy from Rend Collective~