Thought of the Day: How to Pursue Joy

Greetings in Christ Jesus, Fellow Soldiers.

Feeling worn out? Wondering where your joy and peace have gone? Are you stuck in a rut?

A lot of times, as we feel these things, we search for the joy we have lost. "How do I regain it?!"

The problem, as C.S. Lewis has noted, is that joy is ellusive. If we pursue joy, we will never attain it. We must pursue the object of our joy.

How then do we gain it? By pursuing God.

Doesn't this make sense? If I want more joy in my marriage, then I need to spend more time with my wife and delight will follow.

When we pursue God by attending chapel services, spending time in His Word and in prayer, and in fellowship with the saints--in other words, when we draw closer to God--He draws near to us with the joy that is naturally found in Him alone.

He created us to enjoy Him, which means that to be in-joy comes with abiding in Him. As Paul writes in Col. 3, "Set your mind on things above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God."

And even this pursuit is not of our own will, as "He works in us to will and work according to His good pleasure" (Ph. 2).