Jesus promises never bring more on us than we can handle. This statement seems a myth at points of life doesn’t it? When we are at the heart of a troublesome time in life, we often find it very hard to observe with an optimistic eye. Frustrations come to rest upon our shoulders and we clench our teeth, and trudge through them all the while seemingly gasping for deliverance. I know I have found my life in this circumstances more than I can number. Jesus doesn’t want us to merely endure this life. He died in order that we would not only Have life, but that we would enjoy this life and have joy to such a level that it would outpour from us. (liberties taken with John10:10) Yet in our natural state we picture reasons to have joy and while many of those that we would list are not incorrect in their provision of joy, they are not the source of joy. Circumstances are as temporary as a fading sunset. There for moments of utter bliss only to dissipate with the passing of time. Try applying this statement to your own life. Think of the last time you were on a vacation and although it be that your circumstances were nearly perfect, an event of disruption takes place (a missed flight, a wrecked rental car, a lost wallet) and within minutes you relaxed vacation derails. If we depend on our life’s circumstances to be the catalyst to our joy, we will find ourselves not only in a very temporal existence. We’ve been fed a lie by life. This lie… Joy is a feeling and not a choice. The truth is the polar opposite. We are to have joy by choice, not by feeling. Joy that is applied even when all the flights are cancelled. Joy that allow you freedom to apply peace even when faced with one of the most difficult life circumstances you’ve been up against. Joy when all else seems to be failing in your life. The source of this Joy is found in knowing that you don’t have to understand the WHY of all of life’s events. Joy found in the ability to realize that you only live under the illusion that you have control over all that goes on in your life, and instead the One Who is in control is the VERY One Who went to the CROSS to save your life. I understand that struggle it is to apply joy in life. I too have faced many difficult situations. I am facing one right now, but instead of falling down in fear, I am applying JOY out of choice. Jesus knows the needs that I have facing me, as well as the ones that I will require next week/month/year. I would like to share one of my favorite scriptures with you. Please, if it ministers to you as it does to me, allow it to penetrate your heart and seed itself deep within you. From it, you will receive such strength. “I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.” John 16:33 God fullest blessings for you. Pastor Daniella. Follow me on Twitter https://twitter.com/PastorDaniella or my website: MyAlabasterBox.org