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Have you ever made a promise you didn't keep? Or worse yet, couldn't keep?!
Sometimes, we say things with the best of intentions, but when the rubber meets the road, we falter. You may take on more than you can handle and not realize you're overwhelmed until it's too late.
The good news is you're in good company. We've all broken a promise or a commitment at some point.
But there is Someone who never has... and never will… break His promise. And that's our Lord!
God never breaks His promises. What God commits to, He follows through on. And when you think about this, it should be a source of great joy for you! Why? Because God has promised each of us some wonderful things.
Apart from the promises of salvation, grace and unconditional love, God has promised each of us that He has a plan for our lives. Philippians 1:6 says, "He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."
One of the things that's really comforting about this verse is that God does most of the heavy lifting in our lives. Notice that He begins the good work and He completes the good work. All we have to do is fill in the gaps.
When we begin to understand this, it can give us great joy! In fact, He gives us joy through His Spirit and ultimately He will complete our joy. But we have to make the right decisions to remain joyful.
For instance, what are the things that rob of us our joy?
"I am not able to live on my own any longer, I must make a move."
"I'm worried that my finances won't last."
"I've just been diagnosed with cancer."
Maybe. But in each of those situations you can choose to focus on the positive and thank God for His blessings. When you do, you will choose joy.
You may be thinking, "You can't choose joy, you either feel it or you don't." This just isn't true! The Spirit are choices: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
In any situation you can choose the fruit or you can choose the opposite. And through the power of the Holy Spirit, we can indeed choose joy... regardless of our situation. In fact, if you only choose joy during good times, then your joy is rooted in your situation and not in the Lord.
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