Attitude of Joy

I am recently learning how much joy is a choose, how joy is an attitude. There are things going in my life that are extremely stressful and burdensome. There are days when I do get depressed and feel like crying. I am strong most of the time but I have my weak moments like any person.

People have commented how well I am doing including my parents and doctors. I am really surprised also! I could be a lot worse off emotionally but yet I am still happy without even putting on an act. I honestly wonder why I doing so well but then I realize it is God working inside of me and giving me His strength.

I start remembering what I have instead of what I don't have and everything because more clear. I think about my family and friends who are always there, a personal relationship with God and having Him always by my side, a roof over my head, wonderful Christian friends at church. I think about who I could be now and to honest I don't even want to think about it! I could be a total mess right now but God keeps my heart and mind aliened with His will.

There are times when I get down and I don't even know why, and I remember it is my choice on how I feel. I can choose to stay down or find comfort in the arms of my Heavenly Father. I am responsible for my own happiness and cannot find happiness in people or material positions. I have to find it through my relastionship with Jesus Christ. It is something that has to take place in my heart. When I have joy and comfort inside of me it is something that radiates outside of me because it is God's light shining through me.

God wants us to live with an attitude of joy in EVERY circumstance of our life. He wants to be filled with His presence and His love. He wants us to depend on Him for he knows that is the only way we will have peace. He wants his joy to be our strength. He wants us to trust him with everything large and small. He wants us to have joy knowing that we are His children and nothing in this world can change that. He wants to find our joy in him and stop looking for it in the things of this world.

What are your pressure points? What are the areas of your life that you need God's strength? The joy of the Lord is our strength- not money, friendships, good grades, success, or even dreams coming true. Joy is from God and only God. We need to stop looking for it in all the wrong places. We need to let God take the wheel and give Him control of our circumstance. It is the only way to have pure joy! Are you ready and willing to live with an attitude of joy?

Proverbs 17:22 A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

Proverbs 15: 13 A happy heart makes the face cheerful, but heartache crushes the spirit.