BE JOYFUL

BE JOYFUL

A couples of day ago I sat around a balcony in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of friends chit- chatting, listening to great gospel music having light conversation and I realized that I am blessed like really, truly overwhelmingly blessed. When I just had a look at my entire life and what God had done to me, literally no human language could ever  try to  describe how grateful I am to my Maker, despite of circumstances, people ,things and worry which are the stealers of joy, I still had joy in my heart.

It reminded me of the life of the greatest missionary who ever lived on the face of the earth Paul the Apostle, the type of life he lived. How he repeatedly called himself a prisoner of Christ in his epistles and how he lived a life full of joy, was always rejoicing regardless of the circumstances, people around him, t and worry that could have stolen joy from him. Where was the source of Paul’s joy? Can we also be partaker of Paul’s joy?

Those who have trusted Christ have the privilege of experiencing “fullness of joy”(ps16:11)yet few Christian take advantage of this privilege.Paul,after going through dangers and discomforts his life still overflowed with joy. What was the secret of this joy? The secret is found in another word that is repeated in Philippians: it is the word mind, Paul uses the word mind 10 times, and also use remember think 5 times .Add the time he uses remember and you have a total of 16 references to the mind, in other words the secret of Christian joy is found in the way the believer think-his attitude, the steps below will help us maintain joy in our life

Single –mindedness: a double minded man is unstable in all his way (James 1:8) what is your focus in your life as a Christian? What do you cling on? Paul in the very first chapter of Philippians verse 21 he blew it “for me to live is Christ and to die is a gain”. Means his joy did not come from the thing he did neither the circumstances around him, mark you if his joy could have been related to the circumstances around him then Paul would be ever sad. But he focused on nothing less than Jesus Christ, single mindedness

Submissive mind: now days most people wants to associate anything, achievement, success, name them, with themselves. Everyone is egotistical. Should I call it pride! A handful consider others more important than themselves, this was another source of joy that Paul had, Christ First and others comes second. Servant leadership if I may call it.we get this in Philippians 2:3

Spiritual mind: am sure you have ever bordered a bus, one normally focus on the destination. If you know that your destination is 300km away, you will not bother yourself even If the bus stops in between you will remain focus to where you are going. As Christian we should always focus to where our destination is and that is heaven. Circumstance, things, people and worry should not steal our joy. We should always remain focus on our destination

Secure mind: worry is actually wrong thinking (the mind)and wrong feeling (the heart)we should not have trouble with our worry. All that we need is something to guard the heart and the mind so that worry will not enter. Paul describes the secure mind “And the mind of God, which passes all understanding shall keep your hearts and mind through Jesus Christ (ph 4:7)The words here to emphasize is through Jesus Christ. My question is, What is your relationship with JESUS.HE is the beginning of all this joy, the reason why Paul maintain joy in and out of trouble is he had JESUS.(for me living is Christ and to die is gain) TO BE JOYFUL FIRST STEP RECEIVE JESUS AS THE SAVIOR OF YOUR LIFE