Pasto r Kevin was on point this past Sunday when he spoke about Simple Joy. His words were needed and true. It got me thinking. So, I was looking at the New Living Translation of the Bible on YouVersion to day and decided to do a bit of research. How many times does the word Joy appear in the Bible? What about happiness, content, or grateful? If the concept of Joy was as important as PK says it is, logically, it should appear many times in His word, right? Here is what I found:
Joy appears 333 times.
Happiness appears 6 times.
Content appears 16 times.
Grateful appears 4 times.
Faith appears 458 times.
Pray appears 367 times.
Interesting. I mean, we all know how important our faith is and how imperative it is to have a healthy prayer life-but I think we may have missed the meaning of Joy. PK says that Simple Joy is being content without being complacent. In order to be content you must be grateful and in order to avoid complacency, you have to constantly seek to grow. Seems easy enough, right? The concept is simple, but achieving it is not so simple.
Are you content with what you have? Look around your house, do you see all that you have or all that you don’t have but wished you had? Do you look at the people in your life and see God’s hand? Do you look at someone less fortunate and think about how blessed you are? Do you thank God for all that He has provided for you? If not, you should. We all should.
I think we need to sto p looking to our sides what our peers have. We need to sto p looking back at all that we used to have. We need to sto p looking forward to the day when we will have all the things we want. We need to look up, at God. If you spend your life thinking about all the things you wished you had, whether that is material things, the dream job, the comfortable salary, or the perfect husband and kids you will have a life lacking joy. You will miss all the beauty and joy that surrounds you everyday. I have food, I have shelter over my head when I sleep, and I have clothes on my back. I have an abundance of friends and family who love me. I have faith and hope. I can see God working around me all the time. I have more than what I could ever need. We all do. We just need to get better about thanking the Provider of all those blessings. When we focus on what we have and we give thanks for them, it’s hard to see anything else.
Maybe, if we practice this, we’ll see that we have abundance and start giving ourselves away. We can then bless others with the gift of Joy. After all, I think God really thinks Joy is important, considering He put it in the Bible 333 times. That’s a lot of Joy.
How can you be more Joyful?
Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. -Psalm 51:12
