Finding Joy in Your Faith: Growing in Christ

Contributed by Liz Hunt

This morning I sat down at my desk and made a list of to-dos. I divided them into two columns 1) must do today, and 2) should do today, but can wait until later this week. I had the usual culprits on the list including paying bills, washing sheets, writing my blog posts, and walking the dogs. A few non-regular items made the list including making fruit pizza for my niece’s confirmation celebration, checking to see if my sauerkraut is done, and reading a couple of magazines that came in the mail. At about 11 am I realized that the magazines would go in the pile with the others that haven’t been read from last month, the sauerkraut would be fine another day or two, and I’ll only have time to crank out the blog post that is due this week. Lunch was a rushed, discouraged event telling the dogs that we would walk soon and wondering where I would find the energy to do that. In one word…joyless.

Then, I sat down to write this post. Wow. Talk about God speaking through my life. As I sat and prayed about how I felt at that moment, God spoke to me about eyeglasses. Yep, you read right. The Spirit led me to see that I had spent the whole morning focusing on what I had to do, rather than what I got to do. Instead of rejoicing that I had enough money in the bank to pay all my bills and put a bit in savings or that my two black labs give me moments of amazing joy and happiness, I framed my whole morning in terms of I have too much to do, too little time, and too little energy. I quickly realized that I wasn’t walking in the Spirit. 

In Philippians 1:25 Paul says, “Knowing this, I am convinced that I will remain alive so I can continue to help all of you grow and experience the joy of your faith.” Paul recognized that it is through growing in knowledge and understanding of God and His will for our lives that we experience the joy of our faith. Today was a growth experience and because of it, I had joy in my faith. Joy in the truth that Jesus Christ and his sacrifice have provided me with blessings undeserved and unmeasured. How amazing that He has chosen me and you!