From time to time, I thought it would be fun to include an ‘Around the Web This Week’ post on different topics. I do so much research and sleuthing about different topics on the web, I thought, “Why not share my findings with y’all?” And if you have any topics you are interested in and want to know more about, please let me know. I want to post things YOU want to read about 🙂
To start us off, I thought I would continue on our topic of joy from our previous post, 3 ‘Gardening’ Tips for Cultivating Joy. Joy is a fruit of the Holy Spirit, listed right after love in Galatians 5:22. I want to bear more of this fruit in my life. I want to be a happy Christian. After all, a happy Christian is a contagious Christian.
Here are some great articles and messages I came across that offer great encouragement and practical ways to be more joyful:
- What Happens When You Choose Joy – In this article, Pastor James MacDonald looks at James 1:2-4, showing us how we can “count it all joy” when we’re in the midst of trials. Very helpful!
- How to Stay Up When Most are Down (Pt. 1) – I mentioned in my last post how Tommy Newberry has become one of my favorite authors, because he is immensely practical, joyful, and Biblical in his writing. In his 2-part post, Tommy suggests 17 ways we can cultivate more joy in our lives. Did I mention that he’s extremely practical? Love these!
- How to Stay Up When Most are Down (Pt. 2)
- Choosing Joy Over Fear – In her usual, God-honoring fashion, Nancy Leigh DeMoss delivers a moving message about the proactive life of the Proverbs 31 Woman. She focuses particularly on the how the Proverbs 31 Woman chooses joy over fear when thinking about her future. I highly recommend this message, especially if you struggle with fear and feel the joy has been sucked out of your life. You can listen in the link, download the podcast, or read the transcript.
I hope you find these resources helpful. Joy is such an important fruit to cultivate in our lives. We live in a joyless, depressed, and ungrateful culture. The world has “no hope” and is “without God in the world” (Eph. 2:12) We, as believers, must be different! We must exude the joy and hope of being saved by God’s grace and inhabited by the Spirit, so that others might ask, “What’s different about her? Why is she so happy?”
