3 Uplifting Ways to Choose Joy Today, and Every Day
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“Joy” just has a bounce to it that feels high and deep. It’s quite fitting that a word so uplifting to say or hear also represents a power to rise above circumstances, or ground you through a season of unhappiness.
Joy, as it’s expressed and demonstrated throughout Scripture, goes beyond a fleeting feeling, to a radiant celebration of faith. When you know that God is real and his promises are true, you can decide this very day to rejoice (Psalm 118:24).
What Does "Choose Joy" Mean?
Although the word “joy” is found over 150 times in the Bible, I couldn’t find anywhere it’s written precisely as “choose joy.” Choosing joy, however, is what the many Bible verses about joy advocate. Their collective message is that joy is a choice. It’s a decision that goes hand-in-hand with your faith to believe what you cannot see.
Any of us can feel happy, angry, sad, lonely, or hopeful, but joy is the constant “knowing” that keeps us centered. See how 1 Peter 1:8 describes this:
“Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy...”
The psalmist sings amid distress for God to fill hearts with joy (Psalm 4:7). The wisdom of Proverbs 17:22 suggests joy is medicine. Further, Galatians 5:22 reminds us that love is first, but joy is the very next fruit of being Spirit-led.
Choosing joy means believing what Jesus promises in John 16 – that his work to reconcile us to God will make our joy “complete.” Joy is continually filling up on faith, not just feeling happy in good times.
One clear-cut directive to choose joy is in James 1:2-3:
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.”
Seeing even your hardest trials as pure joy? That’s not a knee-jerk response. That requires making a choice. As author Mel Walker, explains, “we can respond to life’s trials with genuine joy if we know the Lord has a purpose for why He would allow those difficult times of suffering and trials. In this passage, the purpose for trials was to produce patience or endurance.”
Joy says I know you are in this, God, and I’m glad.
Photo credit: Unsplash/Jonathan Borba
Why Should We Choose Joy Every Day?
The Bible urges us to guard your heart, and allow your mind to be renewed. As this article offers, choosing joy instead of complaining can adjust a negative attitude and shift your focus toward what’s good, as Philippians 4:8 suggests:
“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”
Joy is medicine in the moment, and healing over time. It takes our eyes off our troubles, and prevents us from shutting out possibilities. When chaos is churning all over the world (or even just in your living room), choosing deep, abiding joy can have a palpable and calming effect.
Life comes at all of us, but surely one of the best gifts of being created human is the will to choose. Use it to guard your heart and renew your mind every day.
3 Ways to Choose Joy Today
This joyful article will inspire you with some wonderful ideas worth practicing regularly. Maybe you have some joy-choosing habits of your own that you used in the past, but just need this reminder to apply them in your current circumstances. However you choose joy, it’s sure to empower you. Here are three more ways:
1. Thank God for your daily bread, daily.
If you’re going through an unhappy situation, please remember that God is with you. And his son, your Savior, is familiar with everything that’s bringing you down. You have an enemy that would love to tempt you to believe that God’s forsaken you. The truth is, God attends to all of our needs better than we do.
Remember the manna in the wilderness? They couldn’t store that stuff up; it would only rot. They couldn’t demand more; God gave them enough. They had to rely on, and participate in, God’s provision day-by-day.
Today, you know there’s sustenance in the Bread of Life, even when you struggle with what’s on your plate. You can thank him for this day, knowing he is nourishing your soul with everlasting joy.
2. Give of yourself to someone—even when no one is giving to you.
A great way to refill on joy is to recognize that not only is God supplying your daily loaves, he’s also given you something you can give...even if it feels like leftover crumbs. So, reach out to someone you miss, whose friendship you appreciate, or who you know is hurting, and share your joy. Joy that you can still call them. Joy that you can send them a meal. Joy that you can be a shoulder for them to lean on.
Joy is saying, “not my will, but yours, Father.” And then tending to yourself and others with what you have. By this you’ll realize you’re less in need of worldly things, and already full of joy.
3. Meditate on Scripture.
I always tell my kids, “the truth is your strength.” And by this I’m reminding them that there is something called “truth” that is stronger than our trials. Truth is able to withstand mockers, abusers, liars, even to transcend death.
Today, you have a fountain of truth to draw from if you need help choosing joy. Find the scriptures that nurture your heart, soothe your nerves, remind you of your hope. Write them down, pin them up, and memorize them. Let them be what resides deep in your heart.
That way when hard times comes, and they will, you will be able to speak true joy—to endure and see the good in them.
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A Prayer to Choose Joy
God, I know you are the source of joy. So, help me, please, to not be anxious and to present my requests to you with thanksgiving. It’s hard to have a cheerful heart in hard times. I don’t understand these troubles, and I need your help to be grateful.
I open my heart to you, to direct me to choose joy. Will you show me that your strength is made perfect in my weakness? Will you reveal to me the joy of the Lord that is my strength? I need you to keep guiding me away from desperation. Calm me, Lord, to live each day centered on the joy that is my faith in you.
In Jesus name, amen.
God’s Promises Are True
It’s wondrous how life brings loads of happy times, right along with lots of not-so-happy. Greater than happy, the Lord gives you joy in knowing that his words are true, his promises are real, and his presence is your strength.
So, don’t stay focused on the trials. Instead, choose joy that God is doing...and already sees...something greater ahead.
“...looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2).
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