5 Ways to Improve your Worship

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5 ways, focus, improve, practice, pray, remember, study, Worship

Some days it’s easy for me to worship whole-heartedly and feel God moving. Other days it’s hard to stay focused and God feels distant.  I know that God sometimes chooses to reveal Himself and sometimes He doesn’t, but I also know that He’s always there, always listening, and always worth my time, attention and adoration. So here are 5 things I’ve found that improve my worship: 

1. Focus on God. If you’re thinking about lunch or the person next to you, then chances are you’re not worshiping. Focus on who God is. Listen to what He may be trying to tell you. Tell Him how great He is. Resist the (many) distractions. 

2. Practice worshiping. If you only worship once a week for an hour while at church you’re going to improve very slowly, if at all. Find time to worship during the week: take a walk and tell God how beautiful His creation is, turn on praise music and sing along, or write down some prayers thanking God for what He’s done for you. 

3. Remember what God has done. If you feel like you don’t know what to say, or feel like God is distant, remember what He’s done for you. That is the fastest and easiest way to remember who He is, and it will always give you something to say: thank you. 

“but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Romans 5:8 ESV 

4. Study God’s word. I have always found it easier to engage in worship after I’ve been reading or studying the Bible. Even days later. It seems I am much more in tune to God and open to hearing what He may be trying to tell me when I have been reading His word. 

5. Pray. Sometimes we create our own barrier between ourselves and God when certain things happen in our lives. We can become angry with Him or question what He is doing (or not doing) or we can become too comfortable with our lives and forget how much we need Him. Don’t fall into this trap, keep the line of communication open. It’s not a sin to not understand what God is doing or why He is allowing something. Go back to number 3, remember who God is and what He’s done. Remember that He is the same, yesterday, today and forever. Then tell Him how you feel, tell Him what you don’t understand, and leave it with Him to deal with. Tell Him how you need Him, how you’re broken without Him and how you can’t believe He would love someone like you. Thank Him for caring, for listening, for loving and for grace. 

“In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us.”

‭‭1 John‬ ‭4:9, 18-19‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Come, Thou Fount

Tags

Come, Come Thou fount, God, God's Grace, God's Mercy, Hymn, James 1:17, Jesus, Lamentations 3:22-23, Revelation 4:8, Thou Fount

I often feel that people get confused about the music part of the worship service. They seem to think that time is designed for us to all sing together. It’s not. It’s a time crafted for us to worship together, and it’s not about the music at all. The music is simply a means we use to worship together.

That being said, music can help us worship by giving us the words to say, reminding us of who God is and what He’s done, and giving us a place to start. But in order for that to work we must ponder what we are singing. No matter if the song is new or old, we must choose to mean what we are saying and be listening for the Holy Spirit’s sweet gentle voice.

I would like to invite you to ponder alongside me the hymn Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing. 

Come. We are inviting The Lord to take part, to join us, to move.

Thou Fount of every blessing. All good things come from God:

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

‭‭James‬ ‭1:17‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Tune my heart. Tuning a stringed instrument means stretching the strings to just the right tension for them to play the desired note. Asking God to tune our hearts means asking Him to stretch us. Is that what I want?

To sing Thy grace. What does it mean for your heart to sing? How can we get our hearts to sing of His grace? When was the last time I was truly thankful for His grace?

Streams of mercy. God is merciful. Not just in little drips here and there when He thinks we deserve it, mercy streams from Him! Streams also implies movement, a current. God wasn’t just merciful to us at our salvation, His mercies are new every morning.

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
    his mercies never come to an end;
 they are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.

Lamentations 3:22-23 ESV

Never ceasing. God is the same yesterday, today and forever. He is the same God today that died on the cross so long ago. His mercy toward us is wrapped up in His love, which has no end.

Calls for songs of loudest praise. God’s mercy and grace are worthy of much thankfulness on our part. We didn’t earn or deserve an ounce of it, yet He gave us unending streams! When was the last time I thanked Him for His grace? His mercy? Why did I ever stop thanking Him?

Teach me some melodious sonnet. Is my heart open to learn and hear from God? A sonnet is a type of song, perhaps the hymn writer was referring to the song our hearts should be singing about His grace. Are we listening for God to teach us our ‘heart song’?

Sung by flaming tongues above. Am I aware of the spiritual world and fight going on around me? Am I aware that the great angels sing praises to God too?

And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say,

“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty,
    who was and is and is to come!”

Revelation 4:8 ESV

Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it. What does it really look like to be ‘fixed’ on something? Is my attention fixed upon God right now? What distracts me?

Mount of Thy redeeming love. God’s love is truly amazing. It’s never ending, overwhelming, reassuring, saving, more than enough, strong, undeserved, good. It redeems us. THIS is what should be fixed upon. What is worth getting distracted from this for?

 

Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it,
Mount of Thy redeeming love.

Sorrowing I shall be in spirit,
Till released from flesh and sin,
Yet from what I do inherit,
Here Thy praises I’ll begin;
Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Here by Thy great help I’ve come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.

Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood;
How His kindness yet pursues me
Mortal tongue can never tell,
Clothed in flesh, till death shall loose me
I cannot proclaim it well.

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.

O that day when freed from sinning,
I shall see Thy lovely face;
Clothed then in blood washed linen
How I’ll sing Thy sovereign grace;
Come, my Lord, no longer tarry,
Take my ransomed soul away;
Send thine angels now to carry
Me to realms of endless day.

Words: Ro­bert Ro­bin­son, 1758; ap­peared in his A Col­lect­ion of Hymns Used by the Church of Christ in Angel Al­ley, Bi­shop­gate, 1759.

Music: Net­tle­ton, Wyeth’s Re­po­si­to­ry of Sac­red Mu­sic, Part Se­cond, by John Wy­eth, 1813

The Waiting Game

Tags

Heaven, Holy Spirit, New Creation, Philippians 3:30-4:1, Pregnancy, Waiting

I am 9 months pregnant with my first child, just waiting for her to make her big debut.  I feel like I am a ticking time bomb, just waiting to suddenly go off either with the drama of my water breaking or with the onset of painful contractions. I feel like I can’t make any plans – people ask me if I will be going to church on Sunday and I can’t give them an answer one way or the other. I feel like I am stuck between my familiar, old life and this new venture of parenthood. Just waiting.

It occurred to me this morning that as Christians this is what our lives on earth are like. We are stuck between our old, familiar lives and our new heavenly bodies basking in God’s presence. We can’t count on anything earthly to come through for us, because we don’t know when God will see fit to take us home. We are looking forward to being in heaven where there is no more pain, no more weeping and best of all God’s presence – but we are stuck here on earth.

People keep telling me to enjoy these last few days before my daughter gets here. ‘Get lots of sleep!’ they say, or ‘Go out with your husband while you can!’. But from my perspective all I can see is the discomfort that’s causing me not to sleep and to be too tired to go out with my husband.

It’s the same with our lives here on earth. We read or are told what we should do with our time here on earth, but all we can see is how hard or impossible those things are! But there is one huge difference between pregnancy and christianity I’d like to point out: The Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit allows us to get glimpses and tastes of what life will be like in heaven. He wets our appetite for the things to come, but doesn’t leave us there. He teaches us and empowers us to recognize and respond to God’s presence right here on earth, allowing us to actually accomplish some of those things that seemed impossible on our own.

I would challenge you to remember this waiting game today. Don’t get too comfortable with life here on earth – this is not where we belong. Earthly things can’t be counted on to come through. People will fail you and unexpected events come up all the time. Remember that God is not simply waiting up in heaven for your arrival either – He wants to walk with you through the trials of this life. Lean on Him as you wait.

“But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, dear friends!” ~Philippians 3:20-4:1

Worship in Christmas, Christmas in Worship

Tags

advent, Broken, Busy, Christmas, Grief, Hope, Love, Refocus, To Do, Worship

I was laying awake the other night pondering about the Christmas season, and decided that there are in general two types of people during the holidays:

1) People who are so busy that they look up and Christmas is already here and they nearly missed it.

2) People who dread the holidays because of loves ones who won’t be with them this year, whatever the reason.

No matter which group you find yourself in, you’re bound to be busy with a “to do” list as long as your arm (and maybe carried over to your other arm). I think we, as Christians, tend to stick “remember that Jesus is the reason for the season!” at the top of our “to do” lists. So we give ourselves a little pat on the back when we say “Merry Christmas” instead of “Happy Holidays”, or when we go to church every Sunday in December even after late Christmas parties, and even when we do nightly advent readings with our families. We check off that box on our list and then move on to the next item, feeling good about ourselves because we had our priorities straight.

I don’t think this is what Christmas is about however. I don’t think remembering that Christmas is about Jesus should be found on our “to do” list at all. Instead, it should be something that colors everything we do during the Christmas season (and really the rest of the year too).

If you find yourself in the first group above, firstly I’m honored that you’re even taking time to read this! I would encourage you to take a step back and consider what Jesus has to do with each item on your agenda. When you’re out shopping for gifts, can you pray for the person you’re shopping for? As you wrap gifts, can you ponder how you might make your own heart beautiful for Jesus? Don’t be the person who snaps at their family as you’re running out the door to a holiday event – even if they did forget to do the one thing you asked them to! Remember that this is a time to celebrate that Jesus came to earth to die for sinners. As in people who aren’t perfect. And before you picture your husband or one of your children, picture yourself. And smile, because Jesus loved YOU enough to come and die in your place.

If you find yourself in the second group above, first of all I want to say that grieving is natural and healthy. It’s ok to be sad! But I want to encourage you to refocus your Christmas, my friend. You see, it’s easy to think that Christmas is all about family time and traditions and big meals, but – while all of those things are good – that’s not what Christmas is ultimately about. Christmas is about Jesus. And hope. We tend to associate Christmas with the nativity scene (side note: The wise men were NOT at the manger scene. They were in Jerusalem at the time of Jesus’s birth.) with Jesus stuck perpetually as an infant, but that’s not the end of the story! He grew up sinless, died a gruesome death to give us the opportunity to be right with God, rose from the dead – conquering death – and the ascended into heaven. But that’s not the end of the story either – we live in a broken world full of messed up and unfair stuff. Its heart breaking. Which is why of all the seasons Christmas should be the season of hope. Christmas reminds us that Jesus came once and He’s coming again! He’s not going to leave the world messed up and broken forever.

I can imagine what you’re thinking: “That’s all good and well, and I do have hope, but I’m still sad here. My heart is broken. It breaks every morning when I get up and see how many chairs sit around my table or how many stockings are hung over my fireplace.” And you’re right. I don’t have the perfect words. But Jesus does. He can fill up the broken pieces of your heart with hope, peace, and even joy. Invite Him into your Christmas. Ask Him to take your broken heart and make something beautiful out of it. Your scars will remain, but they can be beautiful. Maybe there’s someone else out there who’s hurting, who you can encourage and show Jesus to because you can relate to them and their struggles.

Let hope and love fill up your Christmas, and then let Christmas spill over into your worship!

Looking to Jesus

Tags

David, God, Hard Times, Hebrews 13:8, Jesus, Joy, Peace, Psalm 22, Worship

If you can remember, this series about worshipping when we don’t feel like it was inspired by 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18. I stumbled upon that verse a week after my great-grandmother passed away and was taken aback by the idea that I could rejoice through a time like that. After reading it I went through every scripture I could think of and find that had to do with hard times, peace and joy. We’ve looked at several of those already. Now I’m going to take you through my thought process as I went through the other passages.

My first stop: Romans 12:15 “Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.” (NIV) This is pretty clear that it’s ok to mourn. We already discussed that joy and happiness are two different things – you can have joy while you mourn, but happiness not so much.

Next up, Psalm 22:1-18. I’ll only post verses 1-2 and 14-16 since it’s so long, but I encourage you to read the rest. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish? My God, I cry out but you do not answer, by night, but I find no rest. … I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted within me. My mouth is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death. Dogs surround me, a pack of villains encircles me; they pierce my hands and my feet.” (NIV) My first thought after reading this was ‘Goodness. Worst day ever!’ Now you may have recognized the first verse of this psalm as what Jesus said as He was dying on the cross (Matthew 27:46), and there was also the reference to piercing hands and feet. This made me think of the next verse about Jesus’s perspective of His ‘worst day ever’ (from a human perspective anyway).

Hebrews 12:1b-3 “And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners so that you will not grow weary and loose heart.”

For the joy set before Him. There’s that joy again! It even says to consider Him so that we won’t grow weary or loose heart. Jesus is our example. Due to the fact that you are reading this, I’m going to say you haven’t been nailed to a cross yet… so your ‘worst day ever’ isn’t as bad as His. Yet He endured what He did “for the joy set before him”. If we’re going to use Jesus as our example, then we need to find out where His joy came from. I found the answer reading further into that same chapter in Psalms.

Before I write out these next few verses, think about the ones I already told you: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish?” (Psalm 22:1 NIV). We have words and phrases like “forsaken”, “so far from saving”, and “so far from my cries”. Ok, reading on:

“But you, Lord, do not be far from me. You are my strength; come quickly to help me. … I will declare you name to my people; in the assembly I will praise you. … For he has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help.” Psalm 22:19, 22 and 24 NIV (again, I would encourage you to read the rest of the Psalm – it’s good!)

At first glance this psalm seems to contradict itself. On the one hand we have “why have you forsaken me?” and on the other we have “he has not hidden his face from him”. What gives? The psalmist is showing two things here: at the beginning is how they feel, and at the end is what they know. The psalmist (David) feels like everything is wrong, like God is far from him, like this is the worst time ever. But he knows who God is and that is enough for him. David knows what God has done for him in the past, and he knows that God is a good God!

Jesus knew that too. Jesus’s joy came from knowing God’s plan for salvation. Jesus knew that the saving of the world was going to be so wonderful that it would be worth His worst possible day ever. He looked beyond His circumstances on to the greater things to come – His people having a restored relationship with God, and Himself getting to return to the right hand of the Father.

My friend, know that God is good. God is for you! Who can be against you? You serve the same God you did when times were good, and in fact, you serve the same God David did! Find your joy, your perspective, in this:

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” Hebrews 13:8 NIV

Faith, Hope and Love

Tags

Faith, Hebrews 11:1, Hope, Inspiration, Joy, Love, Worship

In the last several posts we’ve been exploring joy and it’s relationship to our worship. Now I’m going to take a quick break from that to look at some other connections we can make with joy. James 1:2-3 shows a connection between joy and faith – our faith brings us joy. Romans 8:18-25 implies a connection between joy and hope – our hope enables us to have joy through undesirable times and circumstances. We looked in depth at each of those connections in past posts. Now look at this:

Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” NIV

So you see that there is a connection between faith and hope – faith is confidence in our hope. These three things: faith, hope and joy make a triangle.

Notice that faith and hope are on the bottom, they are the foundation of our joy. Without them we couldn’t have joy through any sort of trial. Now, I’m sure you’re wondering where my title is going to come into play, that is the challenge:

Worship Challenge #7

Our faith and hope produce joy within us, when this bubbles out and spills onto the people around us, it’s called love. Thus, joy is the inward affect and love is the outward.

So here is your challenge: How does your worship affect your love? You see, when we worship we are approaching the very throne of God, and we are reminding ourselves of every good thing He has done for us. This should strengthen your faith and renew your hope! So when you exit a time of worship, do you feel inspired to love? I hope considering these things inspire you to action – that is your real challenge.

Things to ponder:

When worshipping, is your faith strengthened or your hope renewed? Why or why not?

What is the first thing you think about after worshipping?

What inspires you to go above and beyond when it comes to loving those around you?

The Hope Factor

Tags

Cat, Creation, Hard Times, Hope, Romans 8:18-25, Suffering

As you are well aware, we live in a broken world, infested with sin. Many times, our trials are caused by that very thing – illness, natural disasters, sinful people around us or death. Really, the only exception is when we cause our own troubles – and when you think about it, we are part of the broken world and our sin is part of the problem.

In my last few posts I’ve discussed how God uses our hardships to grow us and make us into better people. It is so comforting to know that our God is big enough to use a broken world to make us better!

One thing that can sustain us through our trials is that one day God is going to liberate us and the world from the brokenness that we live in now. We can have hope in His future!

Romans 8:18-25 “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.” NIV

The first thing to pick up on in this passage, is that presently we are suffering. This is important because we need to be aware that the bible does say that we will suffer. The bible is not about an alternate universe where everything is ‘peaches and cream’. The bible is about OUR world, the one we live in, and it’s not naive. God knows what we are going through.

The second thing to notice is that we are waiting for something better. The passage uses the phrases “eager expectation,” “in hope that” and “as we wait eagerly” and the whole theme is about this hope. Which brings us to the third point.

That thing we are waiting for? It is far better than you can imagine! “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us”. What we are going through doesn’t stand a chance against what we are waiting for. We are looking forward to glorious freedom, our adoption as children of God, the redemption of our bodies! This is well worth the wait.

The last thing I want to point out is that this hope is for everyone and everything. God sent Jesus to die on the cross for ALL of mankind’s sin. All we have to do is believe and trust him and this hope is ours! But there is something comforting about knowing that this hope is for creation too. That “the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God”. There is something reassuring about knowing “that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time”. This comforts me because I know that natural disasters aren’t the way the world is supposed to work, they are due to this groaning. That everything we as humans have done to the earth will be wiped clean. That no matter how bad things get, God has promised freedom and restoration.

I went through my own “hard time” if you will, this last weekend. My cat had four precious babies last week and was keeping them in the drain pipe under our driveway. Normally, here in Texas that is a perfectly safe spot, but on Sunday night a storm suddenly blew in hard and fast. Momma cat was unable to move the kittens fast enough and three of the four drowned. They were less than a week old. As I was thinking about those innocent babies I couldn’t help but feel like this was not right. It wasn’t fair. But then I remembered this very blog post I was working on – that according the word of God this wasn’t right. I remembered the verse that says creation itself will be liberated from it’s bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God, and that comforted me.

Our world today isn’t right, it’s sick and broken. But I pray that you can find the strength to hope, and that it will carry you to your loving Father who is waiting to comfort you with open arms.

Class Blog Announcement

I have taken a break from posting on this blog because I was assigned to start a blog for one of my classes at school. My class blog will be more about leading worship I think, and I don’t get to choose the topics there. But if you would like to see it, you can check it out here.

I hope to get a chance to post again on this blog soon!

Thanks for your patience,

Briana

Record Keeping

Tags

Children, Hard Times, Joy, Worship

Going through hard times is difficult, but knowing that your challenges are accomplishing something within you can make them easier to bear. However, I’ll be the first to admit that it’s hard to see what progress you’re making when you’re in the middle of it.

The maturing of your faith is not a checklist, you can’t check things off as you go. “Pray – check. Hard time – check. Rely on God – check. Bear fruit – check.” It’s more like waiting for a cake to bake in the oven. You prepare it the best you can, then put it in and wait. Some cakes take longer, and some bake at higher temperatures. As the cook you know what’s going on, but that poor cake has no idea whats in store for it.

We are like the cake – first we are a batter of potential, but then we are cooked in the oven of trails and we come out with fruit tasting better than ever. And the best part is that we have a cook who knows everything that’s in store. He’s looked at our recipe card and seen the picture of what we can be; and He has the power to get us there.

Worship Challenge #6

Grab a journal or some paper. Now think back over your life, over the hard times you’ve been through. Think about how you grew through each of those trails. Remember how God sustained you. Now write them down, make a record of them so you wont forget. This journal is for you to read when you are in the middle of a difficult time in the future, to remind you of how God has worked in you in the past. Then, you can continue to add to it as God continues to work in you.

What does this have to do with worship? This is a way to lay your trails at His feet. It can also help you bring things back into perspective, to help you remember that God is with you and worthy of your worship even when things don’t look good.

For children: Children go through hard times too, from being made to do something to their parents getting divorced. Their trials don’t always look the same as an adults’, but they certainly do go through hard times. Think of a trial as a time when you don’t understand why something is happening the way it is, and you don’t know what the outcome will be. Children don’t understand how the world works and can’t think ahead to how things will turn out, they just don’t have the perspective or experience to do that. They also might have a hard time thinking about how God has worked in them in the past. So to do this activity with children, first have them think of some trials. Keep an open mind and don’t criticize what trials they come up with. Then explain to them that God is with them during those hard times, and He is helping them to become stronger and smarter through them. Make sure the children understand that the hard times don’t come from God, God simply allows them and puts them to good use. Older children might benefit from the cake analogy I explained earlier in this post.

Things to ponder

If you had not gone through any trials, would you be the same person you are today?

In the midst of hard times, joy comes from having faith as a higher priority than happiness. Why is this hard for us?

God is not surprised by our hard times, and He is powerful and in control the whole time. Yet He cares for each of our needs and desires for us to be the best that we can be. How does that change your perspective of hard times?

Happy about Joy

Tags

Hard Times, He is the Vine, Holy Spirit, James 1:2-4, John 15:11, John 15:5, Joy, Worship

While peace is a wonderful thing, it isn’t the same thing as joy. If you recall, the verse that inspired this series was 1 Thessalonians 5:16, which says to be joyful always. So my quest for the source of continuous joy, continues.

My next stop is James 1:2-4 “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” NIV

I’m not sure about you, be when I face “trails of many kinds” happiness is not the first emotion I jump to! In fact, I’m usually just wishing they were over already. But happiness isn’t the word used here – it says JOY.

So what is the difference? Well, the first thing you may have already gathered, is that we can have joy even when we’re not happy. You see, joy doesn’t come from our circumstances – joy looks beyond them.

Those “trials of many kinds” are the “testing of your faith”. And the “testing of your faith” leads to becoming “mature and complete, not lacking anything”. We should desire to be mature and complete in our faith, this should be something we strive for. So when we face trials or hard times, we can have joy because we know that we are growing and getting closer to our maturity. When it all boils down, our desire for maturity should trump our want for happiness. This is where joy comes in.

Are you thinking to yourself “whoa, wait a minute! There’s no way I’m going to be able to do that!”? Well I’m glad you brought that up. You don’t have to… by yourself. Joy is a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23), meaning it comes from the Holy Spirit within you. The Holy Spirit will help you find your joy in the midst of your “trials of many kinds”.

John 15:5 “I [Jesus] am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” NIV

Jesus is speaking here. He is using a word picture. He says that He (Jesus) is the vine, the Father is the Gardener, and we are the branches. God prunes us (much like a parent disciplines their children), Jesus supports us and gives us strength, and the Holy Spirit enables us to bear fruit. But notice that Jesus says we are to remain in Him. Picture a vine with branches. Now picture one of those branches deciding that it wants to be free from the vine and live on its own. …It’s not going to do very well is it? Just like a real vine with branches, we need to remember our strength comes from the Lord and we need to rely on Him through our hard times. And guess what that will do for us? It will help us to desire a mature and complete faith, which is when our joy comes in!

Turns out Jesus knew all this already: John 15:11 “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.” NIV

Remember to draw your strength from the Lord. Desire a mature and complete faith. Allow the Holy Spirit to bring you His joy.