Spring Training | Embrace The Joy
Saturday, April 4th 2020
Embracing the joy doesn’t change your situation, it changes how you see your situation and opens up greater opportunities for change!
Acts 16:22-25 NIV
The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods. After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. When he received these orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks. About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.
Embracing the joy doesn’t change your situation, it changes how you see your situation and opens up greater opportunities for change!
Now, I’d like you to take a moment here. If you are watching alone, then just internally ask yourself this. If you are watching with your family or friends, then pause the video and discuss this question:
What difficult situation am I currently facing, and do I have a positive or negative attitude about it?
Remember Who Is In You
2 Corinthians 4:5-7 NLT
You see, we don’t go around preaching about ourselves. We preach that Jesus Christ is Lord, and we ourselves are your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let there be light in the darkness,” has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ. We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.
Remember What We Are Here For
2 Corinthians 4:8-12 NLT
We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies. Yes, we live under constant danger of death because we serve Jesus, so that the life of Jesus will be evident in our dying bodies. So we live in the face of death, but this has resulted in eternal life for you.
Remember It’s Only Temporary
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 NLT
That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.
It’s easy to embrace the suck isn’t it!
Even in the midst of our deepest struggle we can always find joy
To jump online, text a friend, FaceTime your neighbor and complain about everything in your life that’s going wrong. It’s much harder to look past that and try to see what God is up to, to embrace the joy in spite of the circumstances.
Anyone, in fact it seems like, everyone is complaining. That takes no effort whatsoever, but finding and embracing the joy, that takes some work.
You may wonder why it’s necessary, why go to the effort, why not just join the chorus of the cranky?
Personal reason: going through life always focusing on the negative destroys your ability to enjoy even the things you should enjoy. Because you’ll always find reasons to be upset, critical, irritated, frustrated. Living this way, going along with everyone else robs you of the ability to enjoy life the way that God intended for you to enjoy life.
Big Picture reason: people who simply go along with the rest of the world complaining about everything, never make a significant impact in their world. They don’t change anything, make anything better, or make any significant difference. Only the people who are willing to do what’s not normal, only those who are willing to look at things from a different perspective will make a difference.
So, if you want to enjoy life, and you want to make a difference you’ve got to learn how to embrace the joy even in the middle of the suck!
Let’s go back to our buddy Paul, he and his friend have been wrongfully accused, stripped, beaten, and thrown into a cell. That’s a terrible situation, but then we see that they began praying and worshipping God, and the entire prison block began listening. And right there in the middle of the prison they have a revival meeting! How???
What are some things I can do to remind myself of who is in me: Here’s two suggestions to get the ball rolling:
Listen to and sing along to worship music that talks about the greatness of God
Find a memorize a verse that specifically speaks to you.
Now, what about you, what are some things that you can do to remind yourself who is in you?
It’s really easy to forget that this life is not all there is. We get so wrapped up in our day to day lives that anything beyond our current calendar is relegated to the forgotten regions of our mind.
Notice, Paul doesn’t downplay his pain, pressed on every side, perplexed, hunted down, knocked down, and suffering. Then he says, but we aren’t crushed, we aren’t in despair, we aren’t abandoned and we aren’t destroyed. And the suffering that we are going through is helping us become more like Christ.
Okay, so that thing that you are going through, that fight you are in, how can it help make you more like Christ? Never forget that you are here for a purpose, God has a plan for your life that’s bigger than your present pain, so look past it and remember what you are really still here for!
I’m recording this on Thursday of this last week. And earlier today I received a phone call from my dad. He told me that my grandfather, who was 101 years old passed away. It was a peaceful passing, but his heart just decided to stop. Now he lived a full life, and he loved life. He actually got his drivers licensed renewed just before his 100th birthday…yes you heard me correctly, he was still driving at 100!
Now, let’s be honest, most of us aren’t going to live that long, this life, whether we like it or not is temporary, and If all we ever live for is this life, than our lives will be short lived. So, take your eyes off of what is right in front of you, look at the bigger picture of what God is doing in you and through you, and embrace the joy.
All right, take a moment and think about or talk about this: What problem or situation am I currently believing is permanent? And then, If I started believing that it was temporary, how would that change how I dealt with it?
There’s a song we used to sing at Friendship many years ago. It was called Trading my Sorrows. The song was written from this passage, part of the song goes like this:
I’m pressed but not crushed
Persecuted, not abandoned
Struck down but not destroyed
I am blessed beyond the curse
For His promise will endure
That His joy is going to be my strength
Though my sorrows may last for the night
His joy comes with the morning
I’m trading my sorrows
I’m trading my shame
I’m laying it down
For the joy of the Lord
Embrace the joy this week everyone, remember, it doesn’t change your situation, it changes how you see it and it opens up new opportunities to do something great!