Thriving Not Just Surviving (5)

Someone has said, “You look the best when you wear your smile.  There is no beauty like the one that comes from inside you.”  Mother Teresa got it right when she said, “A joyful heart is the inevitable result of a heart burning with love.”

Both of these statements are telling us about joy and about a life of thriving and not just surviving.  One reminds us that joy is found within us rather than being a reaction to our circumstances.  Mother Teresa makes it clear to us that it is in finding a life in the service of God and others that we will find joy in ourselves.

We can all list things that have gone wrong in our lives – harsh injustices, missed opportunities, broken promises, angry words and actions and so on.  We often wrongly believe that it’s only when we get justice for these events and their impact on our lives that we can be joyful.  Fortunately, there is a way to joy that is available to us today and does not depend on the actions of any other person.

Joy is a gift from God.  Joy is found as we look to God and all God is giving us today.  Joy results when we bring all of our lives to God, the good parts and the not-so-good parts, and entrust everything to His care.  Joy bursts through when we see how faithful God is to work all things in our lives together for good. 

Taste and see that the Lord is good. Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him!  (Palm 34:8 NLT)

Oh, the joys of those who are kind to the poor! The Lord rescues them when they are in trouble. (Psalm 41:1 NLT)

Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you. (Psalm 51:12 NLT)

Those who look to him for help will be radiant with joy; no shadow of shame will darken their faces.  (Psalm 34:5 NLT)

If we truly want joy today and every day, we’ll need to purposefully turn our will and our life over to God’s care.  At the end of each day we can then evaluate how God was present with us, helped us, and brought us through each circumstance of the day.  We will then see clearly not just a life in sobriety, but how we are “thriving and not just surviving”.

©2015 Partners in Hope