Day One Hundred and Sixty-Nine.

Verses: "'Seek the Lord and His strength; Seek His face continually [longing to be in His presence]. Remember [with gratitude] His marvelous deeds which He has done, His miracles and the judgments from His mouth, '

1 Chronicles 16:11-12

Maybe right now, you are really struggling. Maybe you are facing a mental illness, chronic illness, stress, cancer, COVID, or the loss of a loved one. What I want to share with you today is no matter what your circumstances are, you can find joy in the Lord.

So how do you find joy from the Lord?

1. Fix your eyes on Jesus and not your circumstances.

As you all know I have struggled with fibromyalgia and depression for years. But these past few weeks, I have become very happy and joyful. How I became so happy and joy is I stopped focusing on my pain or depression. I fixed my eyes on God and the good things in my life. It has truly changed my life because I used to always think about my pain. But now I don't think about my pain anymore. I am truly living a life that I love. Yes I still have pain but it's not my whole life anymore. Fixing my eyes on God and the good things in my life has changed my life. So instead of focusing constantly on your problems and circumstances, fix your eyes on God by focusing on God. Because as you fix your eyes on God, He will draw near to you (Psalm 125:1-2).

2. Seek God daily by: reading His word, worshiping Him, listening to Him, and praying to Him.

I know I say this all the time, but honestly if you want true joy, you have to spend time with God by seeking Him through reading His word, worshiping Him, listening to Him, and praying to Him. Because only true joy comes from God (Psalm 33:4). If you look to the world to find joy, you will never find it. So you have to seek God in order to have true joy that only comes from Jesus (Psalm 33:4). As you spend time with you will be able to build a close and strong relationship with God (Psalm 125:1-2). Having a close relationship with God truly can change your life for the better. But you must seek Him daily. I have always loved the saying: "Spending time with God by reading His word is not like ice cream you only eat a few times. Spending time with God through reading His word must be our daily bread that we eat daily."

3. Praise God daily.

It's so easy to only pray to God when we need something. But in order to have true joy from the Lord, you have to praise God daily. Because imagine if you had a friend who only called you when they needed something from you. That's not a true friend. So just like any other relationship, our relationship with God needs to be more than just praying when we need something. We need to pray to God just to thank Him for what we already have. Start making lists everyday of things you are grateful for. Because God is so good (Psalm 31:19) and He is worthy of our praise (Psalm 33:4).

Prayer:

Dear God,

I pray that as we fix our eyes on you and not our problems, as we seek you daily, and as we praise you daily that you help us be filled with your joy. Because Lord, we know only true joy comes from you so I ask that you bless us with your joy. Lord, as we seek you I pray that you help us build a close and strong relationship with you. Because the best relationship we can ever have is with you. So Lord, I ask you to help us build an amazing relationship with you. I praise you for your goodness, love, mercy, and grace. I thank you for all that you have done for me. I thank you because you are such a good Father and I live to serve you.

I thank you for all my many blessings and for Your Son.

In Jesus's name, I pray, Amen!

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Hey everyone! Thank you so much for reading. I am so sorry it's been so long since I have posted. I am going to *try* to post every Monday and Wednesday. I will do my best!💜❤️💗

I love you so much! I hope you have a blessed day!💗☀️💜❤️

-xoxo Caty☀️💗💜❤️💙