Paul writes, \u2018Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!\u2019<\/i> Why did Paul repeat himself? Because joy is the fuel we run on, and unless we maintain it, we can run out. That means regularly checking your fuel gauge to make sure you\u2019re not being sucked into negativity and doubt. <\/p>\n
In the Bible, wine represents joy. In fact, Christ\u2019s first miracle was turning water into wine\u2014the best they had ever tasted. Jesus is a joy giver, and when you stay connected to Him, you experience His joy regardless of your circumstances. In John 15:11\u00a0NIV, He said, \u2018I have told you this so that My joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.\u2019<\/i> Think about this for a moment: how can you walk around saying your sins are forgiven, God guides and protects you, and you\u2019re going to Heaven\u2014but look like you have been baptised in pickle juice? <\/p>\n
In prison, Paul had so much joy that his jailers were won to Christ and a church sprang up in the \u2018household of Caesar\u2019 (see\u00a0Philippians\u00a04:22). People are always more influenced by your attitude than your theology. Always! When they see you rejoicing in hard times, they\u2019re apt to wonder what your secret is and to think, \u2018Whatever that person has, I need it.\u2019 They become more open and receptive to the truth. <\/p>\n
The happiness this world offers is only a reaction to circumstances, whereas the joy that comes from living for Jesus lifts you above the circumstances. So, focus on His joy, draw on His joy, and demonstrate His joy to the world today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Paul writes, \u2018Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!\u2019 Why did Paul repeat himself? Because joy is the fuel we run on, and unless we maintain it, we can run out. That means regularly checking your fuel gauge to make sure you\u2019re not being sucked into negativity and doubt. In the Bible, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1872"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1872\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}