Joy in the Bible-Chasing Feelings Will Never Satisfy

🅙🅞🅨 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝙱𝚒𝚋𝚕𝚎

𝚆𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚜𝚎 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚎𝚜 𝚝𝚘 𝚖𝚒𝚗𝚍 𝚠𝚑𝚎𝚗 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚔 𝚊𝚋𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝙹𝚘𝚢 𝚏𝚛𝚘𝚖 𝙶𝚘𝚍?

This Earthly life is filled with many ups and downs. There are the good times when we feel emotions like: happy, accomplished, worthy, enough, loved etc. In those times we can see God's blessings or goodness easily, and we feel like life is going pretty good.

Then there are times we feel utterly disappointed, ashamed, embarrassed, unworthy, anxious, sad, lonely, etc. Those are times our human nature starts to creep in, and we don't feel so good about ourselves and our life.

BUT...

The greatest thing about following Jesus, and living with the Holy Spirit inside of us is that we don't have to chase "feelings." We can 𝘼𝙇𝙒𝘼𝙔𝙎 feel 🅙🅞🅨🅕🅤🅛, 𝙉𝙊 𝙈𝘼𝙏𝙏𝙀𝙍 𝙒𝙃𝘼𝙏.

🅙🅞🅨 is more than a feeling. 🅙🅞🅨 is an emotion that doesn't change based on circumstances.

We can feel joy on our best days, and we can still feel that exact joy on our worst days. We can feel this joy, because of Jesus, and his death and resurrection.  When we set our sights and our mind on things greater than this world, Heaven, we can live a life full of joy no matter our circumstances because we trust God and his plan for our life.

We can find joy in the good times, because God's love and blessings are so much better than anything we could dream up for ourselves.

The bad times though? Where's the joy? Joy that comes from God,  is rooted in the fact that God loves you SO much, and he's already working things out for your good. You can trust him. You can forgive others. You can keep going when you want to give up. You can be gentle with yourself and with others. You can be confident in any circumstance. You can love and be kind, when others are not kind to you. You can wait patiently for God's timing in your life. God will NEVER abandon you, and he loves and cares for you so deeply.

When you're finding yourself in a spot where the joy seems sparse, and you are overwhelmed with "feelings" (shame, anxiety, fear, sadness, disappointment etc.), remind yourself those are not feelings from God, and re-center your mind on the things God tells you are true.

𝙶𝚘𝚍 𝚜𝚊𝚢𝚜 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚊𝚛𝚎:

Loved no matter what (Romans 8:38-39)

Fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14)

A light to the world (Matthew 5:14)

Forgiven and free from sin (1 John 1:9)

Valuable to God (Matthew 10:29-31)

Blessed (Deut 28:13; Luke 1:45)

Protected by God's Angels (Psalm 91:11)

Rich in God's Grace (Ephesians 1:7)

A Co-Heir with Christ (2 Cor 5:17)

God's word has never failed, and God will never fail. You can be joyful always because of that!