There are many things in life that can bring us true joy, a new baby, a new car, a new possession, an anniversary, a party, getting together with family and so much more but do they really bring us true joy? When was the last time you felt true joy in deep down in your body? Joy is a hard thing to come across and it can take years for us to really, truly feel it. If joy is not found in our circumstances then we need to find it somewhere else, we find it in other people, we find it in our surroundings and so much more. For some of us it takes us a while to get true joy and to feel it deeply but in time it will come and it will be special when we can feel joy over the small things as much as the big things. For others of us we can feel it really quickly and don’t actually need a lot in life to make us happy and joyful.
We all get into phases of life when we are just done, when things are taking their time and we get into the auto pilot of everyday life. It is at these times that we find it hard to be joyful and to find real joy in our lives. What does it take for you to be joyful? What things in life make you feel real joy? Even through the auto pilot of everyday life we can feel joy, we can feel happiness but we want to want it. We need to make a choice everyday, no matter what life throws at us, to be joyful. We all go through phases of life when it is hard to be joyful when the rest of the world is. There are times like now when people are getting ready for Christmas and it is hard for us to feel joy. It is hard for us to be joyful and happy with the situation that we are in. A loved one may have passed away, we may have lost something, we may be going through a break up, we may be wound up by the children, we may struggle at work.
We all have things that make it hard to feel joy and whenever everyone around us is joyful it is hard to be joyful ourselves. It is like they are rubbing it in our face, rubbing salt in the wound but actually they have reason to be joyful and sometimes we just need to talk about how we are feeling. Maybe for you it is time to sit back and to see what is making you miserable, what is stopping you from feeling joy? Even when we are going through a bleak time in our lives it is still good to find things that make you feel joy, it can be the smallest of things from the birds dawn chorus, to being let out of work early, to being met by the children at home. You may not want to go out but what a joyful noise is the dawn chorus, how wonderful is it to get let of work early and to be able to see the children before they go to bed. It is small things that make you feel joyful, think about those rather than wanting the bigger things.
Joy is something that is hard to find if we let it but if we are aware of it then we are more likely to see it. If you are feeling that you are getting down because of not feeling joy then that is great because then you can do something about it. You can put more things in place to feel joyful. When you do feel joy then you need to be grateful, you need to thank the Lord that he has given you this emotion of feeling joy, at this time of year it is so easy to get overwhelmed by all the things that need to be done but you can find joy through the lights on other peoples houses, the warm mulled wine, the Christmas presents. This time of year is hard for anyone but realise before it is too late that you need to put things in your life to feel joy.
It can be hard, I understand, it took me years to feel joyful over the small things in life but now I do and I am grateful. What better way than this time of year when we can be joyful for the gift that God has given us, He sent His son so that we can live, He sent His son so that we can come to Him, He sent His son so that we don’t have to die. What better gift can you have this Christmas than feeling pure joy?
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