Filled with joy. Doesn’t it sound amazing? To be filled with joy? I think so. There are days where being filled with joy are easier than others.
This is more than having a positive mindset. Although a mindset can make all the difference in success instead of failure. No, I’m talking about a joy filled life where the trials which impact our lives on a daily basis can’t extinguish the light emanating from our joy filled life.
You know those people that seem to glow from the inside? You almost want to go up to them and ask what beauty products they use or what vitamins they put into their bodies. They seem to have tapped the fountain of youth and kept it all to themselves.
I would argue it’s these people who embody the joy of God, the joy of forgiveness, the joy of grace and the joy of eternity. When we keep our eyes on finding our joy in God, we can glow like this too.
How can we cultivate a joy filled life? Here are four ways.
Remember what we have. We can have a personal relationship with the Creator of the universe. He is concerned about the little things and the big things in our life. God was so concerned with us not being left behind He sent His Son, Jesus to take on our sins and create a pathway to eternity in heaven. John 3:16 (NLT) “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”
Remember we are priceless. We have been bought at a price. In 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NLT) it says, “Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.” What was the high price we were bought for? The blood of Jesus on the cross. God wouldn’t have sent His Son to die for us if He didn’t view us as priceless and worthy of eternal life.
Pursue the Gift. God has given us the gift of eternal life, but He won’t force it on us. We don’t have to wait until heaven to experience a joy filled life. We can be filled with joy by pursuing a relationship with Jesus. He is a loving God who wants us to voluntarily come to Him. When we come before Him and ask Him to be part of our lives, we become filled with gifts of the Spirit. One of those gifts is joy. In Galatians 5:22-23 (NLT) it says, “But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!” It’s our human nature which gets in the way of these things shining through us. However, we can surrender all we have to the One who creates a joy filled life and be brimming with the fruit of the Spirit.
Accept forgiveness. Sometimes a lack of forgiveness keeps us from living a joy filled life. It could be not accepting forgiveness which God freely gives. In 1 John 1:9 (NLT) it says, “But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.” There are sins in my past which I’ve had problems letting go of, even though I know God has already forgiven me. It took someone praying over me to lift this burden. We also need to accept forgiveness from others. Someone may have forgiven us for a wrong we have done. Instead of accepting this, we continue to live in the guilt of this wrong. Another way forgiveness can keep us from living a joy filled life is not extending forgiveness to someone else. Yes, they may have done us wrong, we could be the only one who knows, and they haven’t come to ask for forgiveness, but we still need to forgive them. By withholding forgiveness, we only hurt ourselves and we will not have the opportunity to live a joy filled life.
Do any of these points keep you from living a joy filled life? How do you live a joy filled life? Share it in the comments below to encourage others.