Joy is Strength

Joy is Strength.

This is the simple truth I have been meditating on over the past few weeks. What is your strength? Or rather, what do you depend on to get you through life, through the week, or just through the day? For me, oftentimes, I find myself depending on my ability to serve, to follow instructions, and to do a good job. When you work for a ministry, all of these things are very valued...Really when you work for anyone, anywhere these things are valued.

When you’re good at your job, no matter what it is, it can be really easy to depend on your skills to get you through. When you do well, you receive acceptance and praise from the people you work with, which can feel a lot like love. Before you know it, every day you wake up, go to work and do your very best just to get that thumbs up, “good job”, or pay check and that makes you feel like “wow, I have worth”. I don’t know if this is something you can relate to or not, but this is a bit of how I was feeling recently. Sooner or later, everyone realizes that these things don’t actually give you worth, and if that’s all you’re depending on to get you through life, life is going to be really disappointing.

As I mentioned in my other post, a lot of my work lately has given me the ability to listen to podcasts and I was listening to one called “Woah, That’s Good” by Sadie Robertson. She interviews different influential people and asks them one question, “What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?” I listened to one about the fear of disappointing people, because, well, that's just about as relevant as it gets...And it was awesome!

Then automatically the next podcast started up and Sadie was interviewing a girl named Emma Jenkins. I had never heard of her, but after hearing her voice for all of 10 seconds, my initial thought was, “wow, this girl is super excited for something, like, how is she actually this enthusiastic right now?” I mean, I can’t actually describe accurately what she sounded like, you'd have to listen to it. Also, almost every word out of Emma's mouth could be found in the Bible, like scripture legitimately poured out of her. I caught myself thinking, “I wish I could be like her, she is so full of joy and God’s truth”. Then I realized, I can be like her.

Being full of joy is a choice.

Knowing God’s truth is a choice.

I think it took Emma’s crazy enthusiasm to shake me out of the funk of feeling defeated and realize that I wasn’t living like I had a choice. That night I went and listened to some of her videos on youtube, and I was more and more inspired and encouraged. I started writing down scriptures and taping them above me on the bunk bed, so when I lay down, all I can see is God’s truth. Sometimes just doing the little things can position our hearts to stand up and fight.

So, what’s up with the sunflower?

During prayer a couple weeks ago, God gave me this picture of a sunflower, so I looked up the meaning of it and was reminded that they are named not only for the fact that they look like the sun, but also because they follow the sun. A sunflower actually turns to face the sun and will continuously adjust its posture to be in the light. Wow, what a beautiful picture! God is so creative! I felt like He gave me this picture as a reminder for how we are supposed to live, always posturing ourselves to be facing Him, to be soaking in His light, His truth, His life.

As I read back over this post today (I wrote it last week) I am blown away at the way God works! This week I have been so full of joy and excitement for God. Once I started choosing to go to Him for my strength and my joy, He has poured it over my abundantly. I am in awe of God's pursuit; He chases me down and doesn't stop until I know just how loved and adored I am. Wherever you are in your journey and relationship with God, know that you do have a choice. You can choose Him, you can choose joy. And when you don't think you have the strength to keep fighting, He will fight for you because His love for you is unfathomable and unmatched by anything in this world. Never forget that.

I love you guys and I hope this encourages you in some way! Please let me know if there is anyway I can be praying for you. If you're struggling to find joy or strength or just need encouragement (or you just want to say hi), please reach out!!