Hi Everyone
Few years ago, i got and alert from home that my mum got arrested by the police for what she knew nothing about and before the break of the new i just discovered something in the book of Romans 14:17 when Paul said that the kingdom of God is not in the things we eat and drink but in joy and peace in the holy ghost and i desired to have a personal encounter with God in relations with what i saw from the scripture. So when i got home and the news was broken to me that police had arrested mum, the first thing that came to me was a reflection of the scripture i read like some hours ago.
I notice one thing, that in the midst of the sadness and gloominess at home due as a result of the event that had taken place in the house, i was not perplexed. That was altogether a different reaction with me.
Everyone wants to be happy always irrespective of the hurdles and the challenges they go through because it is the right push of life.
Now i want to let us understand that there is a huge different between joy and happiness.
Joy is a feeling of great pleasure and happiness while happiness is the feeling or showing pleasure or contentment.
I am not referring to the joy that is derived from the series of things happening around us.
If you surrender your joy to the things happening around you, you will wake up one day to find out that those things are no more.
Question?
What will become of you if you wake up one morning to find out that your relationship, car, house, iphone 7, etc which was your source of joy are no more, what will become of your joy?
I got a call from a friend of mine one night and while we where talking, she ask me a question i was so glad to answer. She said " How do i find joy", the first thing i could do was laugh because the question was somehow funny. But if i can remember very well what i said to her, i told her that joy is not derived from the things that happens around us but joy is a matter of the things we get from God in the place of fellowship with the spirit of God.
Joy doesn't come as a result of the things we got out of the presence of God.
Stop finding joy in your relationship, gadgets, car, assets and even wealth because these things doesn't give permanent joy but what it gives is a just happiness that is subject to changes.
Do you remember years back when you were a kid, when mum or dad bought you a cloth or even something you loved so much and you were so happy. What always happened if you misbehaved in the process and mum ceased whatever it is she bought for you. What always happened when that happened?
Immediately the joy dies off because that joy was conditional, it found it base on the thing that is seen. I have a friend always makes people the center of her happiness and often times all she get is disappointment because you just wouldn't get it all from people at all times.
Jesus when He was speaking said, Peace i leave with you, My peace i give you. See John 14:27. Look at the emphasis Jesus added to His discuss about, He said, "My peace i leave with you" meaning that it is expected of us not to find joy and peace from anywhere else than in Christ.
Friends there is no peace in the world. I have heard a couple of friends say stuffs like "When i get married and settle down i will have joy" and a whole lot of empty talks.
The other day, Jesus was talking and He said that a man's life is not consist in the abundance of things he possess meaning that even a man with the fattest bank account and many cars to his name, may likely not be a joyful person simply because he own all these things.
According to Galatians 5:22, we have discovered that Joy is a fruit of the spirit and that is why anything not gotten from the presence of God is called happiness which is conditional.
Keep hope alive
Watch for part 2 of this post
Thanks for your time and your read and for my brothers in Spain i say Gracias