The inspiration for this site first came
in the Fall of 2007 as I was wrapping up the RejoiceIn2007 program (now compiled
into a workbook entitled, You're Here for a Reason:
Discover and Live Your Purpose). Writing the lessons each week
over the course of the year brought me to a spiritual mountaintop - a mountain
I hadn't seen in several years. At this place I felt the love and joy our
Heavenly Father has for each of us. It's a place where I want nothing more than
to serve God and bring His children home. At this zenith, it's simple to see
that my greatest joy comes when I'm helping
other people claim all the joyful blessings that God has awaiting them.
It had been a long hard journey to
reach this mountaintop once more, and I was most grateful for the opportunity to
reach the zenith. But, I had two important questions:
1) How did I get here after struggling so
long?
2) How do I stay here? I never want to go
back to the way things were.
The answer to the first question was
simple to see from the mountaintop - although it had been so elusive from the
valley. The change came down to one thing. It's all quite simple from a 20-20
vantage point, but it's often hard for human egos to accept. It's Sacrifice. Some people call it Surrendering. It's giving not part of your
heart, but all of it. Surrendering not just some of your desires, but all of
them to God -- the good, the bad and the questionable. It means letting go of all your favorite little "pet"
sins and saying -- "I choose YOU. Thy will, not mine be done." I'm not
saying you have to be perfect, but you do have to "want" to be
obedient in all things.
Simple to say, not always simple to do.
Why is this such a difficult concept?
I think a lot of us coast through our
lives subsisting on occasional and infrequent spiritual meals. We think church
on Sundays and the occasional glance at our Bibles is "good enough."
In reality it's equivalent to us saying on Thursday, "Oh, I don't need to
eat. I had a big meal on Sunday. Then I nibbled on a piece of cake Wednesday
night. So I'm good to go."
Jesus said that those who "hunger and
thirst after righteousness" would be filled. Filled with what? Filled with
the Holy Spirit! And what is the fruit of the Spirit?
It's "love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, against such there is no law."
(Galatians 5:2)
Do those characteristics sound familiar?
They're the same emotions I said I felt on my mountaintop. So pure and simple,
if you want to find joy on a daily basis, you've got to feast upon the words of
Christ until you're willing to surrender to God all that you are, all that you have. and
all that you hope to be. At the moment you do, you'll experience more
joy, peace and happiness than you ever thought possible.
So that's what the purpose of I Am
Joyful is -- to keep you feasting upon the words of Christ and helping you
remember to keep Him first. Jesus said, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these
things shall be added unto you" (Matthew 6:33). Put Him first and everything else will
start falling into place or drop out of your life. What remains will be a peace
that passes all understanding and a joy that fills your soul.
So let's get started!
Join the
Weekly
Joy Journey
Each week, I'll share a lesson on how to find and
stay connected
with your place of joy, or in other words, obtain and
retain your mountaintop experience.
A
message from