Joy as a Foundation
Remember the Time
jupilu. “girl playing.” Pixabay, 24 Aug. 2021, pixabay.com.
I want to invite you into a conversation about something deeply personal today, and it ties into what we explored together this morning during our 7:30 am live. We discussed the joy of our salvation, and going back to the very beginning, the foundations of our faith and our relationship with Christ.
When you hear the words “the joy of my salvation,” what is your immediate thought?
For some, it’s reading a familiar Bible verse; for others, it’s a song, and for others… well, it begins to get much deeper.
“Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy holy spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.” — Psalm 51:10-12 (KJV)
I don’t know about you, but as a young Christian, I didn’t enjoy reading the first part of this verse: the raw struggle and pain. I would often quickly move forward to the second part.
Who wants to envision or feel the pain David shares in this verse? He was repenting, begging not to be cast away from God’s presence. Can you imagine what it would be like not to have the Holy Spirit as our comforter?
Thankfully, we know that we can receive pure joy when we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior. We abide in that Joy with Him, and are comforted by the Holy Spirit.
Knowing that should be enough, right?
For many, it is, but for some, like me, despite these truths, we choose to walk away.
The Prodigal Daughter
In my teenage years, I began questioning my faith completely because it had been placed in people who misrepresented God through religion or by abusing their positions of authority (and we are seeing a lot of this right now).
So, for many years, I stepped away from religion, and I stepped away from church, which I thought meant I had to step away from God because they must be the same.
Now, I never stopped knowing there was a God, but I certainly walked away from an intimate relationship with Him.
It was during one particularly chaotic time in my life (which I was managing quite well on my own, Thank You!) that I fell flat on my face, much like David did.
When I look back on what my life had become, in my own strength, it could best be described as living in a three-ring circus without the rings and all the noise.
The Road to Restoration
What happened next was a long season of healing and restoration, returning to the foundations of my faith and who I am in Christ.
This required placing myself back into the shoes of that six-year-old girl who bravely walked down the aisle to the front of the church. Who knew with her whole heart what she was doing and why she was doing it, and afterwards couldn’t wait to tell everyone who she now was in Christ.
He beautifully restored everything I had lost, and then some!
I am so thankful that the rigid, broken, religious environment I once knew is no longer my portion. The God I was once told is ready to, at any moment, send me straight to Hell, is not who I have a relationship with. He also healed my heart and showed me that there are good churches out there that actually practice and embody the relationship we are meant to walk in with our Creator. And above all, my eyes are set on Him, not on fallible people (I am one myself).
Because of the long, winding journey it took for me to get here, I believe God has uniquely positioned me to connect with people who have been through similar situations. I’m talking to the people who are seeking a genuine connection with Christ and His Body, people who are on a deep journey of inner healing, and people who might not yet fully know who they are in Christ because they don’t understand who He truly is or how much He loves them.
An Invitation
It doesn’t matter if you’re 25 or 55; God isn’t afraid of your questions, frustrations, or your humanity.
In fact, he desires the honest, real, and raw conversations that come straight from the heart. The process of healing the heart isn’t always pretty, but the result is undeniably beautiful, and it requires going back to your foundations.
For that reason, our live streams this month are focused on a fruit of the Spirit that was key to my inner healing: Joy.
Together this month, we are discussing what it means to walk in the Joy of the Lord.
Those who join me are choosing to take time (a short seven to eight minutes) to tune out the world and examine this foundational fruit and receive a reminder of things we might have forgotten.
Led by the Holy Spirit, we set our hearts and minds on Him with intention.
Think of this space as a devotional or simply a conversation over coffee with a friend.
Thank you to everyone who has supported me along this journey and to those who walk alongside me now!
I’ll see you tomorrow morning for Day #3! (Live or via Replay)