God not only shaped us uniquely, He planned every day of our life to support His shaping process. This means that nothing in our life is insignificant. God uses everything to shape us for our unique role. He wastes nothing. He gives us talents, abilities, interests, gifts, personality, and life experiences to be used for His glory.
I’ve thought about my hopes and dreams for the New Year, as I have for each of the past four years, and I have chosen a word that represents my theme for the year. This year it is “Joy.” And I have committed to trust God to make it happen instead of trying to interfere and “help Him out.” God didn’t create us to live for Him—God created us so He could live His life through us!
Is this joy or is it happiness? Does it matter? What matters is that life is hard and I need to gratefully enjoy these sips from the cup of glory. Be happy now! If you can’t find happiness in the present moment, you never will. Joy isn’t around some corner—it’s here. We are meant to be like an echo, reverberating with God’s joy and sending it back to Him.
The greatest enemy of joy is fear. The quickest way to send your joy packing is to become afraid that it will leave or that something will happen to take it away. Pain cannot be avoided, but joy can. If we don’t believe in the power of choice, we won’t experience it. Negative self-talk is a powerful enemy of joy. When we believe we aren’t good enough for God, it follows that we must also believe He’s not good enough for us.
Let’s start believing what God says about us: He loves us completely, and He is pleased with how He created us. God defines us. We’re not defined by our feelings. We’re not defined by the opinions of others or by our circumstances. We’re not defined by our performance—successes or failures.
Love is seen in how we treat people. Let’s not make people feel like something is wrong with them because they don’t do it our way. Let it go! Love them. Give them freedom to live life their way. God did not put us here to solve people’s problems—He put us here to love one another and share life together, loving God by loving people!
Why not accept the grand, stupendous gift of life like a big chunk of watermelon, letting the sweet pink flesh melt in your mouth, and as for the rest, spit it out? There is more to our lives than we ever thought. There is more to our story than what we have read. There is more to our song than what we have sung. A good author saves the best for last. A great composer keeps his finest for the finish.
God, the author of life and composer of hope, has done the same for us. The best is yet to be! Rejoice! Let your joy reverberate. Hug someone. Dance. Speak some inspiring words. Write a letter. Don’t just think about happiness—be happy! Joy yearns to be physically expressed. Don’t give up! Let’s finish our journey in joy! Happy New Year!
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