Day 1998 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

John 15:11 NIV

Well, it was a weird and strangely rough start to the week for me. Just struggling no matter what I tried. It seemed like no matter what I tried to do, it ended up going wrong and being so much harder along the way. It's kind of like I kept finding new ways to make myself miserable and things harder. But today was an amazing bounce-back day. I'm telling you from experience, a little change in perspective has a huge impact in our lives.

We get told that joy is in all kinds of places around us. People tell us that it can be found in that thing over there, or this place just ahead, or hidden behind this secret trick that they've discovered. There are so many keys to joy in our world, yet so many people are miserable and hurting. Something's not adding up here! I'd venture to guess that maybe all these things that are supposed to make us happy just can't. Maybe all these secrets to happiness are just nonsense.

After walking along the edge of frustrated and angry to start the week, I finally slipped over that edge yesterday and just needed to walk it off. Just get away from everything for a second. And I found the answer. I'd gotten completely focused on all the wrong things. I'd allowed myself to start thinking that I was the problem and that I needed to find a way to get myself right. I realized that it wasn't that I was doing the wrong thing, but I was going about it all the wrong way.

I discovered that I was trying to find some of my happiness outside of God. I was looking for it in the things that I do. I was leaning so much on exercise, diet, music, and the normal things that I enjoy doing that they'd become too serious. I was fighting to get everything perfect every single day, and as we talked about yesterday or the day before, perfection isn't happening for us. So I was putting all of my cards in the wrong basket. And my little walk to clear my head and get away for a second yesterday reminded me that my joy is found in God alone.

Trying to find it in anything else is only going to let us down. It might work for a second, but it will all always let us down because God is the purest source of joy that we have. And He doesn't change, so we can always, and should always look to Him first. He is the only One that can truly help us find peace in life. And without Him, none of this other stuff will ever be enough. We can fight and push to be perfect. We can store up all the shiny things that we can get our hands on. We can cross off everything on our bucket lists. But without God being our foundation and the center of all that we do, then we won't joy in any of it.

Jesus is telling us the secret to true joy in this passage from John. Verse 10 says, "If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love." There you have it. Joy is found in humbly serving God and following His plan and will for our lives. It's in His endless love for us. It's not in us being perfect and getting everything right all the time. Not in having massive bank accounts or private jets. Not in a million social media followers. Not in accomplishing all of our goals and dreams. It is found in God and His infinite goodness.

It's so easy to take our eyes off of Him. So easy. But when we do, then we're going to start feeling the painful consequences. We're going to start getting angry and frustrated. We're going to have more bad days where nothing goes right. All because we get it in our minds that we can find happiness in something other than our Father above.

Friends, we have to stay connected to God. We can try everything else out there, but nothing will ever give us what He can. If you're struggling right now, take a second to see if you've taken your eyes off of Him. If you're tired and upset because nothing seems to go right all of the sudden, maybe you're trying too hard to do it alone. Maybe you've started trying to find the fulfillment of joy in something other than God. And I'm telling you, if you just take some time and reset it will make a massive difference. If you just give it all to Him and let Him sort it out so you can refocus on what matters, things will change for the better. God and His perfect joy haven;t gone anywhere, we've just started looking in the wrong spot!