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Being intentional with Joy

James 1: 2 

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds” 

Have you ever not been in a good mood? Have you ever felt like things are just not going your way? If you answered yes to any of those questions, it shows that you are human. Problems occur and things happen that can make us upset, and that is an unfortunate reality we have to face in this world. 

For me, one of my resolutions this year is to be more joyful. If I had to make a book about the year of 2024, the title of it would be “A sequence of difficulties”. In my life, it seemed I was experiencing problem after problem and issue after issue. I couldn’t escape them. The bitter truth is that problems and issues are inevitable, but our attitude towards them isn’t.  

At that time, I was angry at God for allowing all those things to happen to me, but in retrospect I can be grateful to see the work God was doing inside of me, the resilience he was building, and the character he was moulding.  

I think as Christians we sometimes reject joy. I know it sounds crazy, but can we honestly say that everytime a problem comes, we choose to see what we are grateful for through that? I’m guilty of it, plenty of times I’ve ignored to see all the blessings around me and fixated on all the issues I was facing. One phrase I heard in church growing up was “If you have nothing to be thankful for, be thankful that you are alive”. I never understood the weight of that statement until now. Often times we embed our circumstances with emotional idolatry: choosing to stay in a state of sadness, rather than looking towards the source of our solutions.  

Looking more closely at the verse, there’s one word in that I wanted to focus on today: that word being “consider”. Consideration is all about perspective, how we think and rationalise the situations that are presented to us. A lot of things are mentioned in the Bible, but you will never find it saying that you will never experience issues or problems. Everything is temporary: our issues and circumstances, the only thing that isn’t temporary is what we choose our relationship with God to be. Are we going to be people that let temporary worries affect our praise? Or are we going to give thanks in all circumstances? (1 Thessalonians 5: 16-17) 

Authentic joy comes from recognising God’s character throughout anything you may or may not be experiencing. Once we dwell within God’s goodness, we are able to abide in the joy he desires for our life. Don’t let your problems affect your gratitude: the very fact that you are alive today is a reason to be thankful.  

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