Finding our joy in Christ.

When you think of what makes you most happy in this life, what do you think of? What do you think about before you go to sleep? What is it that you look forward to when you wake up in the morning? What’s the one thing you feel like you couldn’t live without? What is it that you would do anything to make time for? What do you sacrifice for? What do you live for? Now, imagine what your life would look like without that one thing. Would you feel empty? Scared? Alone? Completely abandoned? Unhappy? I know I would. You know what’s crazy? Most of us would answer the questions that I asked at the beginning of my post with many things, such as friends, career, hobbies, a special someone, etc…anything but God! I mean, of course we would answer with “God” if we had just a moment to cover up our true selves and put together the perfect answer. This is true for most of us, if not all. I know it’s true for myself, and I am not proud of admitting it. You know, I woke up this morning with a sense of emptiness in my heart. God was speaking to me through my brokenness and lack of fulfillment. Instead of going about my day like I normally do, I felt a strong need to pray and to come before God and to completely open my heart to Him. As I was pouring out my heart before the Lord, He made me aware of the fact that I replaced Him with so many things. Our hearts are made for worship, each one of us worships one thing or another. Atheists think that they don’t worship anything since they don’t believe in God, but the truth is that they do worship as well. Not God, but themselves. Okay, so we worship. We pour out our time and energy into everything but God and we feel so unsatisfied. When did we forget that our first and only love is Christ? When did we forget about His love for us, His sacrifice? When did we stop enjoying His presence? When did we start making time for everything else and stop making time for Him? We live in a world that embraces discontentment. Magazines are filled with images that make you think that you’re not good enough and that you constantly have to focus on your outward appearance in order to find happiness, when it’s our hearts that need a makeover. We live in a world that is uncertain and afraid. Everything changes so quickly. Nothing is constant. Nothing fulfills. No wonder we are so uneasy and unhappy! It’s all because we build our happiness on things that are temporary instead of looking to God for our joy and fulfillment! The first step in letting God satisfy your heart is realizing that you’ve replaced Him with so many things and turning your eyes upon Him. As you refocus your heart on Christ, you will start feeling a joy that nothing in this world can take away. He doesn’t change. He doesn’t disappoint. He is everything that we need. Let me say that again, because I feel like we’ve been believing a lie that says that we can find our joy everywhere but in the arms of God- He is everything that we need, HE IS ENOUGH!!! Let’s make Christ our source of life! He is our only true source. He is the one that should be the most important in our lives! He is the one that we should make time for, sacrifice for, and live for!!! He is our source of stability, fulfillment, joy, and peace! Everything else can change, but if we are rooted in Him; change has no effect on us and we can soar like the eagle in every circumstance. Turn your eyes from everything else today! Fix your eyes upon Jesus!!! Oh, the joy that you will find!

You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

Psalm 16:11 (NIV)