I’m not Happy

“I’m not happy”

A phrase I have used multiple times throughout my life when things have not gone my way. The problem: happiness is merely an emotion. It is something that is based entirely on temporal circumstances and comes as quickly as it goes.

God created us as women to FEEL – we have emotions for a reason. Life would be bland if we went through it without being emotionally involved. However we were never created to go on daily emotional roller coasters starting out happy moving to a little irritated and ending in utter devastation.

“But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!” (Galatians 5:22-23 NLT)

Right now at Awaken Young Adults we are doing a series called “Growing Pains” which is focusing on the 9 Fruits of the Spirit found in Galatians 5:22-23. What exactly are the Fruits of the Spirit you may be wondering? Well just like the fruit of a tree gives evidence of what kind of tree it is, so the character in our lives give evidence of Whose we are. When we have these fruits (characteristics) evident in our lives, people know that we belong to God and are part of His family. The Holy Spirit on the inside us empowers us to love, empowers us to be patient etc. Just like any farmer knows, these fruits have to be cultivated (worked on) continually. Sadly no, we will not wake up tomorrow and instantly have the heart of Mother Teresa. It’s a process.

The fruit of focus this week has been JOY. What an interesting subject. We are living in a day and age where let’s be honest, there’s not MUCH to be joyful about. ISIS is provoking fear in multiple countries of the world, the family structure has been so broken down that fathers are absent and mothers are falling apart. Basically just scrolling down Facebook can leave you feeling negative, miserable and hopeless about life in general.

I have been a sucker to this for too long and I have decided to draw a line in the sand. I do not have to live like this. You see, JOY is a supernatural fruit that gives us the ABILITY TO OVERCOME. How and why? Well simply – JOY is harvested by our FAITH that has been cultivated by our PRAISE. When we praise God, we are expressing admiration – we are calling out how good He is, how faithful He is and how strong He is to act on our behalf. This builds our FAITH. Romans 10:17 says that faith comes when we hear the Word of God. The more we hear about the goodness of God and how much He already did by reading the stories in the Bible – the more we believe it. Supernatural (i.e doesn’t make sense to the natural mind) JOY occurs because we KNOW who our God is, we know WHAT He is capable of so that we can rest fully assured that He has our today and our future taken care of.

The battle is not ours when we allow Him to intervene. We already have the victory!

So now I can laugh and smile – even when the world is literally falling apart around me – because I know my God and I walk with Him. It takes something or Someone bigger on the inside of us to enable us to laugh when the situation or circumstance is contrary.

We don’t have to be dictated to by our emotions. They do not have to control us.

So today, I want to encourage you to begin by praising Him. Even if it goes against everything that is happening around you. When you begin to praise Him, you put Him in the driver’s seat of your life and your faith begins to rise. You are now standing in a place of full assurance that God will fight for you. Let the JOY of the Lord be your strength! (Nehemiah 8:10)

“She is clothed with strength and dignity, and she laughs without fear of the future.” (Proverbs 31:25 NLT)

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