July 11, 2011 with 9 Comments

385.

4 Things that Steal My Joy

I’m glad I’m not Catholic.

It’s nothing personal. It’s just that I’m really not into the whole confess your sins to another man sort of person.

But I do enjoy confessing my sins to you, my unseen world of blog readers.

I don’t mean to be hypocritical about my stance on confession. I do, however, want to draw attention to the struggles that many of us face in the pursuit of true happiness and enduring Godliness.

So grab a seat, pull the curtain shut and listen as I confess 4 sins that stand in the way of true happiness.

1. Jealousy. I blame the world of social networking for heavily contributing towards my tendency to “jealous”. I realize that “jealous” is not a verb, but it entails so much of what I spend my time doing that I’m making it a word. You must be horrified. That’s exactly why I’ve used other words for this sin – like “comparing my stats to others’, and “setting goals” or “measuring growth”. But who am I fooling? Every time I look at what someone else is doing as a threat to my goals, I’ve taken an additional step towards proving that I’m selfish and ego-centric.

2. Pride. “Can you believe God hasn’t delivered a Mr.Perfect for me yet? What, is He blind? And I can’t believe she got to speak at that event! Doesn’t anyone have any judgment left? Watch this, I’m going to de-friend here because she never responds to my tweets. I’ll show her.” Ok, so you get the gist. Bottom line – God HATES pride. Every single time we think that we deserve more than we’ve been given we fall into the sin of pride. Pride will steal our joy and separate us from God every single time. Here’s something worth confessing: I’m over pride!

3. Fear. Fear paralyzes me to the point of inactivity. It occupies my thoughts more often than I care to admit. Do I have what it takes? What if I fail? What if no one likes me? What if I don’t live up to everyone’s expectations? Satan’s greatest tool against the Christian is fear. But fear is not of God. God is love and there is no fear in love. Had fear won, Goliath wouldn’t be “Goliath”, the fiery furnace would have remained empty, the lion’s den just a location, and Rahab a dead prostitute. Today, I will not fear.

4. Unthankfulness. I read this recently: We must meditate on what God has done in our life instead of what we are still waiting on Him to do. I couldn’t have said it better. If you find yourself without joy like I’ve caught myself lately, it’s probably because you haven’t stopped to see what God has already done in your life. Count your blessings name them one by one and it will surprise you what the Lord has done. I confess – I find it easier to murmur and complain than to praise and proclaim what God has done. But I’m done with unthankfulness.

Listen – it doesn’t matter what your thing is, confessing it is the easy part.

Repentance is the real work, and it’s God’s work of grace in your life and mine.

The result is fullness of joy and a life of fruitfulness. I want that. What about you?

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  • Stefanie Cinadr

    This is just what I needed to hear today! I literally have seen all 4 of those show up in my life this past week. Thank you for sharing with me the truth that God’s teaching you, because it has helped me recognize these lies and sinful thoughts and move to repentance!

  • Gina

    Morning! This is 1 that again im going to read to my family. Im now Christian. Mom occasionally goes 2 harvest and loves it! This is a powerful message. Thankyou :)

  • Tom Derrico

    Happy Monday Lina :)

    Love the transperancy in this post. We are all different but yet the same in the way we were created in God’s image. I have struggled with this list and have failed miserably in the past every time trying in my own strength (weak)
    ONLY by God’s grace is there a remedy for these conditions. Thanks for the straight forword direction this morning :)
    Have a great week Lina :)

  • http://ZCxz Milo

    WHat a great way of self analysis. confession is recognition, repentance is cooperating with God. God gives .repentance Acts 2 and a godly walk relies on grace. we all struggle with those sins but accountability helps. Now you Have an audience cheering you on.

  • Gina

    Fact/venting. God bless her twins.what she did 2day sad.when a parent does this .and the kids are screaming asking 4 help 2 get away.we all reacted.God. totally blessed us 2 handle this the rite way.sorry Lina I needed 2 vent.please say a prayer 4 the twins its their 1st day of camp.we got them there.

  • Amber

    I find that if I don’t have time with God my joy is stealed. All the thing you talk about I totally have felt once or more in my life. If feel like the minute your not in God’s work that’s when the joy stealer comes in. I’m thankful for my mom getting sick and for my family going though this hard time. We would not be able to still smile if God was not in are life.

  • Gina

    Amen-Amber :) night. Thanks Dr.L.

  • susan nelson

    I just got it. I confess! I didn’t know how to post the comment. Sorry for the responding in the wrong way hee hee. Okay I really put myself out there now.

  • Norman Crowell

    Lots of good food for thought here. I plan to share this at our home gathering tonight. The enemy does come to steal, kill and destroy and he does it through the things you have shared in your post. So many christians like myself have great plans of seeking God and pressing in and somehow get distracted by something else in the pursuit. It’s like a tracking dog that keeps losing the scent of what it’s chasing. When we lack joy we look to affix blame everywhere but our own selfish nature. If we could zero in on ” how does this make God feel, or would this please my Father” rather than does this thing bless me or not. Your comment about the tweet not being responded to is more of a problem than many people would think. People want to be responded to right away or else.. I saw a post by a popular evangelist and the next day he rubuked people because he didn’t get the respose to his post that he felt it deserved. Anyway this post works well for a little self diagnostic. Bless you :-)