Nextdoor is a fun little app. I get to hear about porch pirates or car theft, or vandals in my neighborhood.
Tiktok is great, tons of little funny videos that make me smile, peppered with a few videos propogating lies or displaying things that upset me.
Facebook is uplifting, I see stories of friends and family, littered with ads and political arguments.
Watching the news is never uplifting at all, not even the human interest stories anymore. It's all just source for memes.
So why do I expose my brain to these things when I first wake up? I mean I'm not even out of bed yet, my brain hasn't even fully charged its defenses against the lies of the day. Walk right in folks, make yourselves at home.
You know people quote that "Joy comes in the morning" verse a lot. Psalm 30:5
Usually its misquoted or misapplied in some way and so I've often counted that verse as being misrepresented by man. There are a few verses in Scripture like that, where the popular slant of sermons of the day misuse a verse out of context.
Another one also concerns joy. "Count it all joy, when you face trials of many kinds."
People misuse and misapply that one a lot.
You know what I realized today? Two things.
1 - I have really discounted the value of Joy in my life. Probably because I've not liked the way so many Christians apply the concept of Joy.
2 - I have really not allowed my days to start off celebrating in the Joy of Christ.... instead I've started my days letting the enemy steal and devour my joy.
I wake up Monday morning thinking 'ugh, it's Monday, gotta go to work!'
God delights.
Nuff said about that. You might ask 'what does He delight in?' All kinds of things, but take a moment to realize the God delights. He gets delighted.
Is Joy constant happiness? Not to me it isn't. I don't believe we need to be 100% perky and smiley all the time. In fact I've learned that's a recipe for disaster.
Neither do we need to be stoic and frowning all the time.
To me the Joy of Christ is very simply this - a sincere belief that what happens in this life, on this earth, can not rob from me a future filled with all the good things God intends for us.
Sometimes that thought, that belief, brings an ecstatic happiness to me and I have to smile and jump around. Other times it brings a calm. During suffering it brings no smile but a solemn comfort that I'll get through whatever hard time is present before me, and saves me from ever having to ask 'why me God?' or 'God do you even exist?'
Each day I need to wake up, and recharge my reminders. Each day I need to start by flooding myself with God's thoughts instead of the world's lies. Then, once I've let that 'joy come in the morning' (to abuse a verse) then I may be able to stand amidst the world of lies and be a beacon of hope to others, showing them Christ's love.
They really won't know we are different if we're not allowing ourselves to be made different each day.
It also helps a ton with my attitude.
It is the underlying concrete foundation of my life.
