What Makes God's Joy Different?

Joy is what we all desire. Some of us seek joy through shopping, vacations, foods, friends, and much more. But there is one joy that surpasses all, and that is joy from God. So what makes God's joy different?

Many would argue that God's joy is nothing different than the joy we find from our loved ones or from our hobbies, but from my own experiences and from the word of God, I have found God's joy to be unique and different from what the world offers. 

1. His joy last forever. 

Unlike other joys in this world that only fill us temporarily, God's joy last forever. When we go shopping and buy a new bag or product, it feels good. But eventually, we'll lose that "joyful" feeling and will be left with wanting more. God's joy, however fills us and leaves us with a satisfaction that lasts forever. 

John 4:13-14 says, "Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst..." God's joy will leave us so satisfied that we will desire nothing else but him. 

We no longer will be thirsty for other things of this world when we taste the living water that comes from Jesus.

2. His joy never fails.

God's joy will never disappoint us. Many of the things we look for in this world will leave us disappointed, but God's joy never will. God's joy will always meet above our expectations, leaving us overwhelmed. Isaiah 61:20 says, "I am overwhelmed with joy in the Lord my God." When God gives, he gives his all and best. 

God's joy will always leave us overwhelmed. 

3. His joy was made for us. 

God's joy was made to meet our specific needs anytime and anywhere. When we're feeling anxious, his joy fill us with peace (Psalm 94:19 "When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought me joy."). When we're feeling lonely, his joy fills us with his presence (Psalm 16:11 "You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence.."). When we're feeling sad, his joy brings us comfort (Psalm 34:18 "The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit."). 

God's joy will meet our needs anytime and anywhere. 

God's joy was made specifically for you. Nothing in this world can bring you perfect joy except God. The things in this world that bring you happiness are human made, but God's joy comes from your heavenly father who made you and knows exactly what you need. 

Have you experienced God's joy? If you haven't, invite God into your heart and allow him to take you deeper into his presence and will. You will find joy in God that you cannot find anywhere else. God wants you to experience his unspeakable joy for you. A Joy that surpasses all is only found in God. So remember, God's joy is different from others. 

It's Not Always About Being Right

We all want to be right, but wanting to be right isn't always a good thing. How many times have we gotten stuck in prolonged arguments just to justify our point? It's human nature to defend ourselves, but when defending ourselves comes at the cost of hurting others, that's when being right becomes wrong. It's not always about being right. 

I never thought I had prideful issues because I was never the one to brag about myself. But after a rough day at work, God showed me the root to my hidden pride: the desire to be right. 

I hated being proven wrong. Regardless if I was truly right or wrong, I found it natural for me to defend myself. I would go all ways to prove that I was right, even if it was at the expense of hurting others through prolonged arguments. 

While the desire to be right isn't always wrong, it becomes wrong when it comes out of selfish reasons. I found that my desire to always be right was only stopping God's love from flowing through my life.  

I saw my pride hurting my relationships with my co-workers and even to my loved ones. 

Wanting to be right becomes wrong when it comes at the expense of hurting others. 

While I thought I was so far from being prideful, God showed me how my desire to be right was only building on my pride. Pride blocks God's love from flowing through our lives. When we focus on being right, we're positioning ourselves as better than others. Instead of focusing on being right, focus on helping others. 

Philippians 2:3 says, "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility, value others above yourselves."

Wanting to be right is a selfish desire, and in this verse, God commands us to do nothing out of selfish ambition. When we realize that we are not better than anyone else, it no longer matters if we are right or wrong. What matters at the end is that the other person's needs are served. Love cannot stem from a selfish heart, but only from a heart that puts others first. 

When we focus on valuing others above ourselves, it positions us to love them. 

God despises pride because not only does it prevent us from loving others, but it also blocks us from understanding his truth. The Saduccees and other leaders of the law in the Bible are a perfect example of what pride can do to you. 

Peter and John who were the two disciples of Jesus had healed a lame man who was disabled for 40 years. By faith and through the power of Jesus, the lame man was healed. 

While everyone was praising God for the miraculous healing that had happened, the Saduccees and leaders of the law despised that very act and wanted Peter and John to stop sharing the good news o f Jesus. Acts 4:21-22 says, "...they didn’t know how to punish them without starting a riot. For everyone was praising God for this miraculous sign—the healing of a man who had been lame for more than forty years."

Why do you think everyone was praising God except for the Sadducees and other leaders of the law?

Because they were filled with pride.

The pride of the leaders made them shameful to accept that Peter and John who were uneducated men knew more than they did. The Sadducees were known as experts of the law, yet because they had not known about Jesus, their pride prevented them from accepting Jesus as their savior. 

The Sadducees' desire to be right stopped them from accepting the miraculous power and truth of Jesus. 

We must be careful to not let our pride blind us from the reality of God's truth. Selfishness and pride do nothing but pull us away from living the life of love that God has called each of us to live. Let us put away our focus from ourselves and focus on helping others. So remember, it's not always about being right. 

Prayer: Lord, help me to focus less on being right and more on helping others so that your love may flow through my life. 

The Beauty Of Depending On God

We all need something to rely on in life; one that we can fall back on when things go wrong. Some of us choose to depend on our careers, experiences, family, or our gut feelings. But I have found that there's nothing in this world that we can trust 100% in except for God. There is beauty in depending on God.

I'm a very dependent person compared to many people I know. I've always found myself needing someone to help me, guide me, and love me. My tendency has always been to run into relationships with the goal of finding someone I can depend on. 

I attended a speaking event recently that warned against being too independent or dependent. 

I obviously fell on the dependent side of the spectrum. 

I was convicted. I later prayed to God and asked him to help me to not be such a dependent person. But in that moment, God spoke to me and said he wants me to be a dependent person, but dependent solely on him. 

I desired to be helped, guided, and loved, yet I already had all of that in Christ. 

God is the best helper and lover you need. Nothing in this world can hold your life together like God. As much as we want to trust ourselves or the things of this world, we know we can't. When we try to put our trust in people or things, we become filled with fear and doubts because we know nothing in this world can promise us a good tomorrow - but God can. 

God already knows his good plans for your life and it is He who holds it all together. Jeremiah 29:11 says, "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." God wants you to live a life to the fullest, but you have to depend on him to see it come true. 

The enemy will try to use your doubts to steer you away from God to the things of this world, but at the end of the day you must hold on to God's promises and live by it to see his promises come true. Jesus says in John 10:10 says, "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full."

Our lives are constantly filled with troubles, so we're all looking for a place to rest. We all want to go home after an exhausting day of school or work, but have you made God as your home? Nowhere else can you get the rest that only God can give you. 

Make God your home and you will find rest. 

Psalm 91:1-2 says, "Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, "He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust."If you're looking for help and protection, run to God because he wants to be your refuge and fortress, your home. 

You will find rest when you make God your dwelling place. The beauty of depending on God is that he will never fail you. It's when you depend on God that you can experience a life full of power and purpose. So remember, there is beauty in depending on God. 

Prayer: Lord, I want you to be my home, my place of protection and rest. 

You Are A Masterpiece

We all strive to look perfect - to have the perfect body, hair, facial structures, and much more. But in your venture to perfection, have you lost the fact that you were already made perfect by the most high God? You are a masterpiece. 

I've grown up most of my life being very self-conscious of the way I looked. I might have been perceived as confident and bold on the outside, but on the inside, I was hiding my insecurities behind the makeup and fashionable clothes I would wear. 

I would look at myself every day and wished I would be like that girl who had a better chin, or that girl who had a better smile, and the list of my hated features would continue on and on. I spent most of my days fretting over how to be more beautiful or how I could be perceived as more confident. 

But no matter how much makeup I would put or how many cute outfits I would wear, at the end of the day, I still found my same shy and insecure self. 

One truth that finally set me free from the lies that were in my head was when I read Psalm 139:13-14 which says, "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful.."

More makeup didn't solve my insecurities, but it was in knowing that a perfect and loving God made me. You are the creation of the most high God, the best maker out there. He created your inmost being - every inch of you was made to perfection. 

What you see as imperfections are God's perfections. 

When you look at yourself in the mirror, what do you see? Do you see imperfections or perfections? Do you see yourself as a mess-up or a masterpiece? We can be our own worst enemies, nit-picking every little detail that we hate about ourselves. But do you know who made those very little details that you call as imperfections?

A perfect and loving God. 

None of us would dare bash the work of the best artist in the world, then how much more should we look down on God's creation? When we look down at ourselves, we are looking down at God's beautiful work in us.  

You are God's masterpiece (Ephesians 2:10) - don't let your view of imperfections tell you otherwise. The enemy will try to use your beauty against you, but remember that God created you to embrace your beauty, not to chase after it.

Don't waste away your efforts chasing after the beauty that is already in you. God's works are all wonderful and beautiful, which includes you. Don't let the world define your beauty because God has already defined the beauty in you. So remember, you are a masterpiece.

Prayer: Lord, help me to love myself, knowing that your beautiful hands have made me into who I am today.

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Selfishness Destroys

We all are selfish by nature. Worrying about our lives comes naturally, and many of our agendas consist of self-center desires. Although selfishness may seem appealing, the truth is, selfishness destroys. 

I'll make a confession - I'm a selfish person.  I tend to want things my way and hate it when my plans get disrupted. 

I found that this selfish attitude of mine not only ruins my relationships with others, but also with God. Destruction in any relationship starts with selfishness, and it's something that God has been working on removing in my life. 

I've learned that my walk with God can't be all about me. The things that I want are not always what God wants for me, and many times his plans for me aren't even close to my own plans. But the good news is, his plans are always better than my own.  

It's hard to let go of our own selfish wants, but we must remember that our plans can't compare to the better plans God has for us. Isaiah 55:9 says, “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."God's ways are higher than our ways because he knows more than we do. Let the God who knows more than you plan your life because he knows what is best for you. 

Don't let your plans get in the way of God's plans. God's plans are always better. 

The story of David in the Bible shows us how our selfishness can destroy God's good plan for our lives. David started out great and successful in the beginning of his life. Before doing anything, he would always consult with God first. David's life was all about God, so God blessed him and made him victorious over all his enemies. 

But then David became selfish, which led to his downfall. 

David slept with Bathsheba and took her as his own, despite her already having a husband. God had already blessed David with so much, yet because of his selfish desires, he took what the Lord never gave to him. 

God spoke to David through a prophet and said in 2 Samuel 12:7-9, "I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul...I gave you all Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. Why did you despise the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in his eyes?"

David's own selfish plans led him to a disastrous and shameful life. God only planned to give David the best life, yet his selfish ways let him astray from God's good plans. 

What desire do you have that God may be saying no to? Has your own selfishness stopped God's good plans for you? The enemy will use our selfishness to destroy our lives, just as he did with David. David could have experienced life to the fullest, but his own plans got in the way of God's plan. 

John 10:10 says, "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." God's plan has always been for us to experience life to the fullest, but the enemy wants to destroy his plans by making us focus on ourselves rather than God. 

When we turn our eyes from God to ourselves, we feed our selfishness which leads us further from God's beautiful plan for our lives. Don't get in the way of God's plans because his plans are better than ours. So remember, selfishness destroys.