The joy of faith is the best remedy against the griefs of sense.
a remedy with a promise
a remedy with a proof
A lot of things in Jesus’ teachings, and in the Bible, seem contrary to popular opinion, or even good sense. Sense says that to be happy, as with any emotion, it must come from within. And doesn’t that sound like a lot of popular advice? “Be true to YOU—true happiness comes from being YOU.” That kind of thinking appeals to our very American, very original, very individual thinking.
The Bible, however, has some different things to say. It actually seems to think that joy isn’t found within, all of the time. That sometimes—it must be something that you PUT ON. Like clothes! That it’s something that must be found outside of yourself.
I've had this theory for some time now—that ALL topical sins, come from 3 base desires deep within each of us. Pride, lust, and greed. We act out of them all the time, but usually, we tend toward one over the others. But, I’m starting to believe that even out of those 3….everything we do—everything—-everything that affects us negatively…is actually based in fear.
We fear everything. We fear loneliness, rejection, poverty, sickness, disease, failure, disappointment, spiders, lack of sleep, hunger…the list goes on. We even fear fear itself! Humanity keeps conquering disease after disease, we haven’t had any world wars in a while, and yet we’re still killing ourselves with anxiety & depression by the millions! FEAR does that.
YOU can train your body, your mind, and your soul, to PLACE your faith, PUT ON joy, and CHOOSE to love. Joy is not only possible, it’s NOT OPTIONAL.
Over the next two weeks, until we meet again, take a few days to really study, meditate on, and apply each of these verses. By study, I mean: do a SOAP study, write each verse out word by word, pray about, read the rest of the chapter, read a commentary, etc.
If you need more, check out this article.
I also found some songs that help me PLACE my faith, PUT ON joy, and CHOOSE to love. Use these…just like Saul used music of the harp, in 1 Samuel, to ward off a “tormenting spirit”.