1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.
My Thoughts
We have all heard that saying "Happiness is a choice." Here in Thessalonians it is actually a command. Always be joyful. To be joyful we have to be mindful of all the good around us. We have to make a conscious effort to think on the good... to see the good in others... to love others, to give to others. Not just money or material gifts.. but give our attention, our time... our smiles our acceptance. When we hand out joy it echos back into our lives more times than it is handed out. If you shout to the mountains " You are beautiful" you hear it back 3 or 4 times for your one shout. So to be able to feel such joy we must first give it...then it will be echoed back into our lives. Joy is a choice...we are commanded to be joyful always. That means in the morning... in the lull of the day...and at night when the day has been long. There is always something to be joyful about, always. We just have to make the effort to look for it...sometime, often we have to be the joy we want to see. We have to fix our hearts on joy!
We are also commanded to be in constant prayer... that means that we are always talking to God...about anything and everything. Taking, talking, talking to God. If we are constantly praying.. if we never stop..we fill up the cracks of empty space where the devil likes to get. We keep God with us every moment when we stay in constant prayer. In those prayers we need to be mindful to be thankful always, always!!
I often wondered how to be thankful when something bad was going on... it is doable.. and it will change the bad much more quickly than dwelling on the bad... blowing the bad up in our heads so it is so much bigger than it actually is. We have to make God bigger than our problem... God is bigger than any problem we have. So when the moment or the day is not going good we can thank God... for good yesterdays... for new days... new beginnings... we can thank God for any lessons we are suppose to be learning. When we get busy thanking God in all circumstances it draws God near... we remember to invite God in to take over... we can thank God that he is bigger than any bad day we have...and we will see the changes. Sometimes the changes come in the things around us...sometime it comes in our own hearts...and our ability to deal with a difficult situation...but when we invite God in there is always a change.
God give us free will to be joyful. God give us free will to be prayerful God give us free will to be thankful. In all of these areas we have the choice. The amazing things is that God gives us the answers... God tells us here is the right answers, we need to choose them so our life can be abundant!!
What will your echo be today?
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