Life is hard. Joy is a quality or an attitude of delight and happiness grounded in the work of God. Joy is not that fake Sunday smile that covers up your anxiety and your depression. Joy is a deep assurance through Jesus that allows you to find meaning and purpose in the face of suffering. Nehemiah 8:10, “…the joy of the Lord is your strength”. When you are weak, His joy will make you strong. True joy is not something you receive when your desires are met. It’s something you experience as a byproduct of being with Jesus. Pursue Jesus to experience true Joy. The fruit of the spirit is joy. Gain a renewed perspective. Make a few shifts. Fight from victory, not for victory. We have victory through Jesus Christ.

We can have peace in-spite of external problems and troubles. The peace Jesus speaks of is not connected to external circumstances. It’s a supernatural peace. It comes from Heaven. A gift, for every single follower of Jesus. Guard your heart and mind. Fear feeds worry and anxiety. Get a clear perspective. We need to see who our God is, His love goes beyond the circumstances we find ourselves in. He sent His son to find us. Pray first. Pray about everything, your sadness, your hurt, your disappointment. Ask Him for strength, and then thank Him, for all He has done, and all He is going to do.

God is calling us as His followers to stop for a moment, to reflect and focus on Christmas. A period of preparation of our hearts, our minds and our lives for the coming of Jesus Christ. Our world is in crisis and a place of darkness. God is calling us to prepare our hearts to see Christ the messiah. A call to pick up our cross and follow Him. He is hope. God is fully aware of what’s going on in our world. He comes to us in our valleys, in our mountains. God wants to smooth out the rough edges. Jesus is the hope of the world. Even when we are faithless, God remains faithful. Hope will never fail and disappoint us. Hope and the fullness of God will never let you down.

God created us to depend in a healthy way on community together to experience freedom. Independence and freedom are different. Jesus did not die for you to have independence. We are delivered into freedom through Christ and then called to live out our freedom with others, in relationship with others. Two are better than one. Isolation is from the enemy. We need to foster relationships that lead to freedom. God and others together is key to our walk in freedom. God forgives sin, confess your sins to each other so that you may be healed, continue to live in freedom.

When we look around at the problems in our world, it’s easy to become overwhelmed. We become apathetic to the needs of others. “Do you know what I want? I want justice, oceans of it. I want fairness, rivers of it. That’s what I want. That’s all I want”, Amos 5:24. Justice should be an overflow of God’s love for us. God is calling us to live out His desires and plans for us. Jesus’ love is a very practical kind of love. He gave us Himself by dying for us. The ‘Love Is… Movement’ is the start of a heart movement. We are going to bring out the God colours in our world. We’re going to let God’s love shine through our lives into our communities during the Christmas season. We need to be the hands and feet of Jesus so that the world can experience His love through us.

Collossians 1:13, “For He has rescued us and has drawn us to Himself from the dominion of darkness, and has transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son”. Death came to all of us. We are all in some way treading the water of life, trying to keep our heads above water. With God all things are possible. We can be saved from death, from sin, the weight that drags us down. Jesus came to the rescue, to seek and save the lost – His reason for dying on the cross. It’s not about what you do, but about what He has done. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us – while we were still sinners. In God’s sight, your life was worth the price of Jesus, his own son, crucified on the cross.

Life is hard. We can all identify with the hardships of life. We live with a paradox of beautiful moments and the brutality of life. Stress and anxiety are very much part of our human experience. We are not necessarily humans on a spiritual journey, but more spiritual beings on a human journey. Warfare in the spiritual, between God and the enemy is a real thing. It can sometimes cause the depression and anxiety we experience – isolated, alone, trapped. Jesus himself faced every aspect of the cruelty of life. He is in the middle of the mess with us. Don’t quit, when you are stressed or anxious, in that dark place, you are not alone. God is with you.

Don’t quit worshipping, don’t quit praising God. Become relentless with your worshipping, with your praise. Psalm 34:1, “I will praise the Lord at all times, I will constantly speak His praises.” Often we quit when our circumstances change. 1 Thessalonians 5:18, “In every situation no matter what the circumstances, be thankful and continually give thanks to God for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.” worship is the ultimate form of surrender and submission to God. Choosing not to worship when you feel like quitting is choosing to submit to your surroundings and circumstances instead of the sovereignty of your saviour. We are to submit ourselves to God, for as we humble ourselves we find God’s favour.

It is God’s desire for you and me to grow. It’s His desire for us to mature, to flourish, to live an abundant life. It’s not his desire for us to get stuck. He didn’t create us to roam the earth endlessly and aimlessly for 80 to 90 years and then die. God’s plan for our lives is to continue to bear fruit even in our old age. He came to give us life, abundant life. So many of us are not living abundant lives, instead are languishing. As believers, spiritual growth is not an option, it’s the expectation that comes with the cross. Salvation is a free gift to us but it comes with an expectation – because God wants us to mature.