How I find joy in God

Prayer

The number one way I find my joy in God is by praying. Praying sometimes looks like getting on my knees, bowing my head and telling God everything that’s troubling me, and being honest about it. He can handle it. In fact, He wants it. Sometimes, prayer may look like laying in bed and just talking to God like I would a human friend, talking to Him about my day or plans I want to make for the future. And sometimes, praying looks like just sitting in silence with God and just being present with Him. Prayer isn’t always talking but it’s also listening. And it’s when I sit with God in silence that I’m able to really hone in to what He’s trying to tell me. Sometimes He speaks through revelation, bringing a song to mind and other times He just gives me peace or clarity on something I’ve been asking Him about.

Spending time with Him

Spending time with God doesn’t look the same for me everyday. Sometimes, spending time with Him looks like watching a wholesome movie. Other times, it looks like reading my Bible or a spirit-filling book. Another way I enjoy spending time with God is listening to God-honoring music or music that keeps my spirits lifted. I also enjoy watching Christian YouTubers or virtual sermons.

Gratitude

One way that I am able to find joy (and peace) in God is by expressing my gratitude to the ways He is blessing me right now (this is especially helpful during hard seasons when I tend to focus on what I don’t have or what He hasn’t given me.) For me, this looks like recognizing the blessings that He’s already provided to me such as good health, family/friends, freedom in Christ, a source of income, a place to live, you know just the little things. I’ve cultivated more gratitude in my life by creating a gratitude jar. I’ll cut up scraps of paper and write different things that I am thankful to God for throughout my day.

Reflecting on the ways He has showed up in my life

I started keeping a prayer journal for this exact reason. I started writing down my prayers and what I had prayed for verbally. And when I saw God answering them, I would go back and write beside them how God had answered those prayers. By doing this, I began to understand how God shows up in my life and it helped me to keep track of the smaller prayers He would answer.

Hanging on to His promises

Isaiah 43:1-2: He promises to be with us wherever we go and in whatever we face in this life.
Isaiah 55: God sees all and knows all, and therefore, always has our best interest in mind.
Lamentations 3:22: His grace and mercies are new everyday.
Matthew 6:25-33: God promises to provide for our needs daily. If we don’t have it, then we probably don’t need it (there is a difference between need and want).
Romans 8:38-39: Nothing in all of creation can separate us from God’s transforming and powerful love.
2 Corinthians 3:17: Because of God, we are no longer bound.
1 John 1:9: God will forgive us when we repent for our sins.
Revelation 7:16-17: God promises to restore all that has been lost. One day, we will never experience sorrow, loss, heartache, poverty or any other issue that resulted from the fall.

Chronicles of a Believer