Where Did Your Joy Go?

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <span style="font-size: large;">The world is getting more confusing, complex and unfriendly to so many people. But, people who have learned to look up to God cannot be as confused and bewildered.</span><br /> <span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">Look at the faces of several people and you will see that joy is no longer there. For me, it is something close to a tragedy or something like that, to live in this season of life and not experience joy. Knowing that joy does not come through things; acquisitions of money, wealth, material things, power, social status, titles, political power or anything that this side of eternity can offer, I marvel at the rate with which people seek it where it cannot be found.</span><br /> <span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">See, I'm not in any way suggesting that, being wealthy or rich, acquiring material things or going for and having political power is wrong, no. What I desire that you carefully look at and think about is the fact that, looking for the right thing at the wrong place will never be correct.</span><br /> <span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">Many of us are missing out on joy because we are looking for it at the wrong places or through the wrong channels.</span><br /> <span style="font-size: large;">So, where did your joy go? Oh, think about your younger years, when your face used to be full of smiles and laughter was so easy to come by. What happened as you grew older?</span><br /> <span style="font-size: large;">Sorry, what usually happen that as many people (not everyone, though) get older they seem to be losing out on joy. Shouldn't it have been that as people grow and get more experienced about life, they will learn to grow in experiencing joy? Are you with me?</span><br /> <span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">So, what is the real issue here?</span><br /> <span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">1. You may be holding on to your past too tightly to embrace the present.</span><br /> <span style="font-size: large;">Some people are so wealthy that you cannot stop imagining why they look so unhappy and not just that they look unhappy, they are truly unhappy. For many of them, they have refused to let their past, pass. They have grown to develop the habit of always bringing their past to the present and so are not able to find joy right there with them.</span><br /> <span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">2. May be, the future is now your present.</span><br /> <span style="font-size: large;">There is a way people worry about the future that makes their lives swap their present with the future. Such people look to the future with so much fear. This fear is usually because they do not see the present and the opportunities it brings. So, they miss out on everything in life. With such fear of the future they will never be able to do what they ought to do today so as to have a better future. Their actions in the present destroys the future which is possible and which they really need.</span><br /> <span style="font-size: large;">They worry and fear what is not even there. This usually come because people refuse to learn positive lessons from their past so as to make the right choices today for the best that the future hold. So, they look at the future and see nothing to push them to be the best that they can be today. Now, how can there be joy in such a life?</span><br /> <span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">3. Have you left God somewhere?</span><br /> <span style="font-size: large;">God is not the one that usually leaves. He is here everyday, every time and everywhere. Whenever and wherever anyone makes the choice to humbly, genuinely and truly call on God, surely He will answer. It is not about who you are or what you have done in the past, no! It is about going beyond your past to accept your need of God and actually, truly and humbly calling Him in surrender, with all your heart. If we were to keep focusing on our very 'smelly' pasts, no one will even have the boldness to say that he or she is calling onto God. This is because every man or woman born of a woman has a messy past, which we supposed to ashamed of. Now, let me tell you what I found out.</span><br /> <span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">There is an experience of this life where you will no longer be ashamed of your messy past, remembering them with so much effort to try to keep their thought away, but remembering them with thanksgiving to God because you know that you are forgiven and no more the same person that did those 'bag things' in the past. Yes, that life exists!</span><br /> <span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">Ask God to have mercy on you, forgive and wash you with the blood of Jesus Christ. You need to believe that Jesus' death on the Cross was and is still for your sins, both past and present. If, right now, you accept Jesus' death on the Cross, as the payment for your sins, then you will see a difference. And, I AM SURE OF IT!</span><br /> <span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">Your joy is waiting for YOU! So, what would you do about that?</span><br /> <span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">Ebere Samuel's Blog</span></div>

Where Did Your Joy Go?

The world is getting more confusing, complex and unfriendly to so many people. But, people who have learned to look up to God cannot be as ...

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