Showing posts with label joy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label joy. Show all posts

Monday

What & Where is True Happiness & Joy? - Coffee & Conversation






Do we need something complicated or elaborate to make us happy?

Do we need something beautiful or intricate to make us happy?

Do we need something expensive or outlandish to make us happy?









No I believe that mostly the simplest of things make us happy.



A Silly Picture


This picture that I saw on Facebook one day really made me laugh out loud.


Photo Credit - Holiday Spirit




 A Funny Word that makes us Laugh



 A Familiar Taste


So happy that there was one Mr Frostie ice pop left in the box because I don't like the Mrs Frosties






A Sense of Satisfaction over something we Achieve.  


The highest score I have ever got for one turn in a game of Wordfeud.






When we try and plan things to be happy events or special moments or fantastic pictures, they can be spoilt by the simplest of things as well.  But some of the best events, moments or pictures are the ones we haven't thought out or planned or hoped for but have just happened when we are not thinking about them.


I am definitely a person who likes to plan things but I have to learn to sometimes just let things happen and enjoy the moments that God gives me and not just the ones I plan.



Often I have been struck by the different things that I would chose as happy moments. 

It is great to think that the majority of them do not involve spending money so who can possible claim that money brings happiness.  

Often things that bring happiness are things I have made or achieved or took part in with others and memories.

These things were perhaps not perfect and not the most beautiful but I learnt new skills and I am always ready to take some time to enjoy my memories.






There is the contact with friends and family that make me happy.   


We were happy to have all our family together for summer holidays for the previous 3 years


A hug that made me very happy when I had a headache





Then there was that ordinary day when I was very happy to be able to embed this
 Gospel Presentation Video
 by Glen Scrivener
 in my blog sidebar.


This was not something that made me laugh or was cute & made me smile.

This was not something that involved my memories.

This was not something that I had accomplished.



No.

This was something that I knew would help to bring true happiness and in fact true joy to others.






What could make us happier than to know that others are happy too!

What can make others happy?

Where does our true happiness come from?


                   Not money and not perfection anyway!


Our true happiness is really deeper than happiness it is pure deep joy that comes from the Lord 






What and Where is True Happiness and Joy?




Can you say that you are truly happy?

Do you have this joy that nothing can take away from you?

I hope you take the time to watch the short 321 video
and share it with others too.








You may enjoy reading some more Coffee & Conversation Posts from this Blog


You may be interested in reading more encouragement around Happiness  at

 





Sunday

Sunday Scripture - Psalm 16 v 8


Sunday Scripture is just simply a thought or two on a Bible verse that may have struck me afresh or maybe for the first time or has always been special to me.


Today I am looking at Psalm 16 v 8





This week I had a number of different things that had to be done.

We are getting a new kitchen so the old one was being removed this week and the tiles taken up from the floor which meant a lot of packig things up and moving things to use in other rooms.

But some things I had to do were simply because I just was too easily distracted by other things during the previous week and so didn't get round to these things.

Oh how easily distracted we can be!

Our attention flitters from 

      one thing to another, 

            one person to another, 

                  one blog post to another, 

                        one TV programme to another, 

                              one song to another,

                                    one thought to another......



Who do we flitter to instead of looking to God?



We need to have a determined attitude to keep our focus on God.

We need to be able to say






Is this not a great declaration to set in the face of the devil!



Oh yes things will still surround us and we will have to think of other things and other people but if we can truly say the first part of this verse 


I have set the Lord always before me:

then we will be able to hold on to the second part.  



because He is at my right hand I shall not be removed.


We will still be looking to Him,

have His guidance at all times 

and 
have His presence 

so we will not be enticed away by the other gods of this world.



Oh how easily distracted we can be.


What a wonderful position to be in because then we can also say 


Psalm 16 v 11
Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in Thy presence is fullness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. 





                                                      


Are you determined to set God always before you?






Sunday Scripture - John 16 v 24


Sunday Scripture is just simply a thought or two on a Bible verse that may have struck me afresh or maybe for the first time or has always been special to me.


Today I am looking at John 16 v 24





Obviously this verse is about praying and receiving and Jesus had just previously been specifically talking to His disciples about a time when they would be sorrowful and He would not be with them.

I love that Jesus was saying something very personal between them but this should also be personal to us.

Up until then the disciples could ask Jesus any questiions they had but there was going to be a time when they would have to pray to God about everything. 

Jesus has power to answer all our prayers & grant us the desires of our hearts but He was not strutting His own importance here; instead He was showing how it is about us because He wants good for us.




So is our Joy Full?


Not - are you joyful?       But - IS YOUR JOY FULL?

He is talking about joy that only He can give us and that no-one else can take away from us v. 22



19 Now Jesus knew that they desired to ask Him, and He said to them, “Are you inquiring among yourselves about what I said, ‘A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me’?20 Most assuredly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy. 21 A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow because her hour has come; but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. 22 Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.23 “And in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. 24 Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.25 “These things I have spoken to you in figurative language; but the time is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figurative language, but I will tell you plainly about the Father. 26 In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I shall pray the Father for you;27 for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God. 




Do we hold back and not confide all to God? 

I don't think He wants us to have to stay in any sorrow because He has a great Joy for us.




Do you really have joy?


We really do need to approach the Father as Jesus has instructed and receive what He is longing for us to have.







PRAYER
Dear Father, help us to come to you about everything, knowing that your will for us is to give us the best we can each possibly have because you know what we require to have full, overflowing, real joy that will touch the hearts of others as well.
In Jesus name, 
Amen.






Thursday

What Happened at the Gate? Day 5 - The Book of Acts



In the previous post we finished chapter 2 and today we are looking at the first 10 verses of Chapter 3.


This is one of the most well-known parts of the book of Acts especially by children as we often cover this story in Sunday School and other kids events and use the song


"Silver and Gold have I None"

to help the children remember the event.







I love how learning a song that is based on Bible verses can help us to learn God's Word and this is a great example.





Each verse in this section has something important to highlight.

1.   Going Together to Pray
2.   A Beautiful Gate
3.   A Simple Request
4.   An Attention Getter
5.   Expectancy
6.   The Truth is Spoken
7.   Needs are Met
8.   Joyful Praise
9.   A Miraculous Work of God
10. Wonder and Amazement


Even though I know this passage so well I still can get the happiness of this event and the joy of this event.

Happiness and joy are not the same and here I think we have a good example of the difference.

The people were glad for the man but the man himself was full of joy.

I'm sure he was happy too but only he could know the real joy because this miracle had happened to him, and changed his life forever.







It is such a good example of the change in our lives when we accept God's salvation: it brings us happiness and real joy and changes our lives forever because of an encounter with Jesus.


Happiness and joy are not the same and here I think we have a good example of the difference.


There are lots of things we can learn about salvation here but also lots of things to learn about how Christians can witness to others.  Just look at those verses again and see it from those two points of view and be encouraged.






You can find all the other posts in this series at









Sunday

Pondering the Psalms - Psalm 126


Each Sunday I am going to choose a Psalm and write down some brief thoughts on  it.


Today I'm looking at Psalm 126




This is one of the shorter more well-known Psalms



This Psalm falls into two parts:


V. 1-3
Surprise at the change of events
Rejoicing by the children of God
Acknowledgement by onlookers
Proclamation by the children of God


V. 4-6
Expecting more from God
Proclaiming the joy that is still to come.




Surprise.
Are we prepared for the great things God will do among us, or is it all a shock when it happens?
Sometimes we get used to not seeing our prayers answered straight away and can get into a state of asking but not totally believing and expecting daily.


Are we prepared for the great things God will do among us?


Rejoicing.
Do other people notice how we are rejoicing over great answers to our prayers and what has been happening to us?
We need to make sure others can see just how God is working in our lives.






Acknowledgement.
It is wonderful when others can see and admit that the events in our lives are ordered by God.


Proclamation.
Do we say and proclaim what God is doing among us?
Others need to see the way we know the hand of God in our lives and also how joyful we are because of it.


Expecting.
When we see God working we are encouraged to look for more of the work of His Hand on our lives and the lives of others.


Proclaiming.
We know the goodness of God and we know what He has said He will do, so we can look forward to further rejoicing and we should encourage others by reminding them of this.






It is not always easy, we do not see our prayers answered immediately and in exactly the way we would hope for.

Sometimes there is distress, anguish & sorrow as we pray for others 
and as we try to witness to them.


Tears of :
sorrow for sin
sympathy with others
tenderness in prayer.



But

there will be harvests of joy after the sorrow


We need to encourage others that there is joy after the sorrow


because 


those who sow in the tears of godly sorrow

shall reap in the joy of a sealed pardon
& a settled peace






Wednesday

The Spider in the Hall! - A Dose of Encouragement


If you have read other posts on this blog you will know that my husband travels often on business.

Although some people think this has perks - it rarely does.  In fact there are so many other things that are downsides of this fact.


The Spider in the hall being just one of those.








When we moved into this house in December 2010 we noticed a lot of spiders appearing in the first 6 months here.

Suddenly we would be sitting quietly watching a dvd in the lounge when something would run along the floor past us and Fred would have to jump up to get it and kill it before it disappeared again.  Slippers were even known to have been thrown across the room in some cases.

These spiders were not wee tiny things but quite big and therefore noticeable when they tried to sprint the length of our room.


The 2 good things about that time was that

  • Fred was not travelling much so he was there to do the killing (please don't judge us for killing them).
  • It came to an end, we presumed the spiders had been hiding somewhere after being free to roam the house while it was empty before we bought it and now they had all ventured out and been GOT.


I'm not saying we didn't get any spiders since then but to be honest we got more outside on the patio than we did in the house and the ones in the house were not big.

Until September last year that was.





It was enormous!
I mean really enormous!

But worse than that - Fred was away on business!

I was on my own in the house!

It was 1.15 in the morning when I should have been in bed fast asleep but well.....

All I could think of was

That thing could make it to our bedroom 
and the door of our bedroom doesn't close properly 
and this thing could be crawling all over me in bed. 

 I would never be able to sleep.

It has to go!


But there was no Fred to get it for me.

Now just to prove that I did not zoom in on this spider to make it look BIG you can see it compared to the mirror which is about 4.5 feet long and 2 feet deep.  The spider was just approaching the corner and was about 1.5 feet from the mirror.




Before I decided how to kill it I had to take a picture because otherwise Fred would never have believed me about the size of it.

My biggest problem was I did not want to squash it on the wall because I did not want to mark the paintwork - too lazy to have to clean it!

I would have to act quickly before this thing ran off.

But I didn't because the spider seemed content to just sit there while I took the picture and stared at it considering my options.

No way was I going to try to scoop it onto a piece of paper and try to take it outside - it would have been far too close to my hands.

It had to be the flick it off the wall and stamp on it method!

But I was in my slippers and my feet are small so I had to go get a newspaper and would you believe that brute just sat there on the wall and waited for me to come back.  I think he thought I would be no match for him.

Then with a swift flick off the wall (making no mark), I threw the newspaper on top of it on the floor and jumped on top of the newspaper.  

GOT IT!

I actually think it was so big it couldn't move as fast as smaller spiders.

After what probably would have looked to others like a little flamenco dancing on the newspaper it was definitely dead.

Well I felt so good (not because I had killed a spider) but because I had managed something I usually relied on Fred to do and I would be able to sleep unworried about the spider.

But then the thought struck me

What if there was a spider's mate somewhere in the house?


How quickly I could go from one feeling to another!

How quickly my mood could be changed by one little thought!

But the devil sure knows which little thought to put into our minds - that one little thought that will be the one to do his evil work.

He knows just when to slip it in to rob us of any joy we have.

He tries it all the time.
He is an expert at it.
He thinks he knows us so well.

And let's face it he does know us well.

He knows all those thoughts, feelings, fears, reactions, worries that he can attack us with.

But

God knows us better than anyone.

God does not attack us.
God does not rob us of joy.
God does not throw discouraging thoughts at us.
God does not plant niggling fears in our minds.


God is the one who gives us joy.

God is the one who helps us overcome all that the devil wants to pull us down with.





So next time you feel your joy being sucked away by the devil and his whisperings in your ear think about this story of the spider and 

imagine you are flamenco dancing on the devil 

because 

Jesus has the victory over the devil and so do we.

Don't let the devil hold you back!











Sunday

It's God's Love #23


On Sundays I write a short post consisting of a Bible Verse around the topic of God's Love and I would be very pleased if you would come and join me each week.










God's Love

and 

the Love of 

Jesus

are one and the same Love

and that

Love

is there for us to rest in. 








I'm thankful

to know that

when we have

the Love of God

we also

have

Joy.


ARE  YOU?



















Tuesday

What are you doing for Christmas? Advent 5




Today is the last day of Advent.




The last time to consider the four words we have looked at through this time of Advent.








Our last update on the Advent reading plan 


Day 24.        1 John 3:7 & 8

Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.
He that commiteth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning.  For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.

Jesus came into the world to help us to stop sinning and to be our substitutionary sacrifice, taking away God's wrath if we do sin.



We received a lot of cards which wished us a Merry Christmas and some took words from a carol or mentioned the shepherds, wise men, angels, star etc.

Here I have picked out 4 of the cards we received which highlighted the four words of Advent



HOPE




LOVE






JOY





PEACE




May I wish you the true 
Hope, Love, Joy and Peace 
that Jesus brought on the first Christmas 
and still brings to us as we trust in Him.




I took some time last week to sit and listen to an old Christmas Music collection that my son had found on YouTube.


It was a compilation of Christmas songs by Max Bygraves which my kids used to listen to on the way to school with their cousins.  Their uncle played this same album in the car all through December every year and they all used to moan and groan about it but now it has turned into a fond Christmas memory.

On You tube it is in several parts to cover the whole album, the first part is here if you want to have a listen.






That is something that Christmas does in us, it stirs up memories.

Today I was thinking about how the memory of the first Christmas with Jesus coming to live on earth in God's plan of Salvation brought Mary to the anticipation of this Salvation.

Then how the memory of working alongside Jesus and knowing Him gave the disciples the faith to proclaim the Saviour and that He would return one day.

And because we know God's word came true about Jesus coming to be the Saviour of the world then we can trust that His word will come true about the return of Jesus too.

So the first Christmas leads us to the anticipation of the return of Jesus hence the celebration of Advent, where we are awaiting His Coming.








           Advent means arrival or appearance


Are you awaiting His arrival or appearance ?  

Have you trusted in Jesus and believe when He said He would come again?