A person who practices constant gratitude is a satisfied person. He is a person capable of seeing beyond himself and the circumstances that surround him; a person who understands and lives with the certainty that the eternal is more important than the temporal and chooses the hope they have for the future. However, fixing your gaze on eternity is also being able to recognize the importance of the present. It is in the present where we must choose to be happy. It is in the present that we choose to love. And therefore, the present is the time when we should be thankful for what God has put before us. It means opening your eyes and seeing God’s goodness in detail, here and now. As Colossians 4. 2 says, “persevere in prayer, watching with gratitude. ” Joy is rooted in gratitude. It is not possible to have a happy heart without having a grateful heart. Those who praise God will feel joy. The happy will thank God. Joy and gratitude go hand in hand. C. Lewis, on the other hand, said that we tend to reject the good that God offers us because at that moment we expected another kind of good. Instead of being filled with gratitude for God’s goodness, we are blinded by our unmet needs. And joy cannot grow if there is ingratitude in us. We need to focus more on what we have and not what we don’t have yet. In the Old Testament we see this very well. In Joshua 4: 4-7, for example, God told Joshua to choose twelve men, one from each tribe of Israel, to collect twelve stones in the Jordan, one for each tribe of Israel, and He told them:? sign between you; and when your children ask in the future, saying: What do these stones mean to you? by the way, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones will forever be a monument to the children of Israel.
Monuments For generations, people have passed through this altar built with these stones. God knew that the Israelites were a forgotten people and used this means to remember this generation and the following about their goodness. We may need to build memorials, ways that will help. Let us remember the goodness of God, a stone, a symbol, a phrase on the wall, a notebook. This memory can produce a sense of gratitude in our hearts. Then we can praise God, as David did, in Psalm 126. 3: “Truly, great things the Lord has done for us, so we are happy. Living in the moment helps us recognize that God can be found right now, whether there is joy or sadness. That is why, in the Bible, we read that we must seize every opportunity to do good. Making the most of the moment, we can experience a better joy.
- The problem is our greed.
- We don’t want the time.
- One second.
- We want days.
- Weeks.
- Months.
- Years; we want a lifetime.
- And if we can’t have long moments of amazement and tranquility.
- It’s like signing a contract of choice: I won’t be happy.
A phrase I read somewhere: “The decision to rejoice in the present changes not only the moment of the moment, but also our vision of the past and fills the future with hope. “We live, many times, dissatisfied. We spend time lamenting about the past that does not return or the past as it was, we spend energies in the future that is not pronounced, in practice today is minimized. But as the Psalmist writes: “This is the day the Lord did; let us rejoice and rejoice in it. “To increase joy in our hearts, we must recognize that this day was made by the Lord. Whether he suffers or not. God can always be found. He’s with us.
Joy The ability to find blessings in the midst of chaos is a reflection of Romans 8:28: “All things contribute to the good of those who love God. “This means that even in the midst of many bad things, there is always something to fill the mind with good things does not mean living in denial, rather it means that it is always possible to find something good, joy will always go hand in hand with sadness and difficulties, at least in this life. We find Christ, then yes: everything will be joy, until then we must seek what is just, the blessings, and find blessings even in the midst of a sad scenario, we will find joy, this joy that invades our heart of peace. . The peace of Crist.
In volume 11 of the Crucial Questions series, RCSproul exposes the biblical concept of joy and urges the Christian to seek it, despite the difficult and unfortunate circumstances of life. Sproul warns that joy, the fruit of the Holy Spirit, must manifest itself. in the life of every Christian as he grows in grace and sanctification. In this book, the reader is invited to experience the fulness of joy through a living relationship with God through Jesus Christ.
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