Joy is a choice
23 March
“Consider it all joy when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have it's perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."
James 1:2-4
If you read through the older posts on this blog, you would see that I already have several blog posts with the same theme that you probably guessed would be in this one, judging by the title. (Quick thing here... Never judge a blog post by it's title.) I do believe, though, that throughout our lives we go through different struggles and stages; sometimes there are things that we continue to encounter over and over again, even if we’ve dealt with it already. These are times of trial and testing. The times of purging all the junk from ourselves in order to obtain a closer and deeper relationship with God, which is why I am writing once again with this verse from the book of James as the theme.
“You just have to choose to be happy. It’s a choice... Purely free will.”
I scoffed to myself whenever I heard anybody saying this. “Yeah right,” I would think. “I’ve tried to choose. It doesn’t work like that. Trust me.”
The truth is, that is how it works, whether or not we want to believe it or not. Or if we choose to believe it.
Being joyful is a non-negotiable requirement for us. Rejoice in the Lord always, it says. That means exactly what is says... Always choose joy, no matter what. And I know... It seems so impossible sometimes. There have been days where I literally just sat there after waking up in the morning trying to talk myself into not acting like a grouchy old potato (get it? My last name is Frei? Haha) and get up, live my life, completely care free and happy. My life is pretty good, but sometimes things still come up.
We do not have a right to not be joyful. God gave us so much... A beautiful planet to live on, a moral code to live by, and the gift of His love that He so willingly bestows on us. We belong to Him. We don’t have a right to not be joyful. We should be thankful, praising our Father for everything that He has done for us.
Hard words.
I read them first in a book called the Committed Life by Rebbitzen Esther Jungries.
I had lived my life believing that sometimes things just happen. We don’t have control over our feelings or thoughts. If I woke up feeling lonely, that would set the track for the rest of the day. That’s just the way it worked in my mind. When I read the words in the chapter talking about joy and how it is a requirement from God that we are joyful and that we have to choose to be joyful even if and when we don't feel like it, I was cut to the heart.
I wished that I didn’t know.
Ignorance is bliss, right?
But the hard truth is that once the truth has been revealed to us, we are obligated and have a responsibility to act on it. We can’t just go on and ignore it and pretend like we don’t know. It is our responsibility to follow through, just like it is or responsibility to choose joy in the face of the impossible, which leads me back to the scripture that we opened this post with.
Choosing joy when we encounter trials.
Obviously, since I’ve written about this topic many times before, I re-evaluate it often and each time I do I get something different out of it. This time, I thought about when terrible things happen that our completely out of control.
Bad things happen to everyone.
We all know this.
Bad things happen to good people, and it never seems fair and it never makes any sense.
I don’t know why bad things happen.
I can’t explain the murder of 11 million people during the Holocaust. I can’t explain the tragedy of children starving, or Christians being persecuted, or all the babies that never even had a chance in the world because they died before they were born or who had their precious lives taken away from them. I can’t explain war and death and pain.
We are not happy that these things happen. God is not happy when these things happen. But this is where choice comes in. We choose joy in the struggle. We choose joy in the fight. We don’t have to be excited and happy and rejoice when a loved one passes away. But we can choose joy through the hurt and the pain, keeping our eyes lifted to where our help comes from in each moment that comes. We can have joy in knowing that despite the circumstances, we are not forsaken or alone. In knowing that if we let Him, God will carry us through it and never leave your side. We can even have joy in knowing that we will come out stronger in the end. After all, the rest of the verse tells us that the testing our faith produces endurance, making us perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. Amen.
We can also have hope.
Hope for better days up ahead.
Some days we can't see even two inches in front of us.
We can't imagine getting out and being able to laugh and smile again.
But this is where the choice comes in.
In choosing to be joyful.
In choosing to keep your eyes fixed on Him.
In choosing to trust that He's got you, no matter what.
In choosing to look forward with hope for when the healing comes.
We don't rejoice for the struggle... We rejoice through the struggle.
“Suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, and character produces hope and hope does not put us to shame.”
0 Posted by Emma comments