Our theme for the next 30 days revolves around contagious joy that comes in following Jesus. The devotions have extended participation – if you so choose. Find out how below.
Building Contagious Joy
Disciples of Jesus connect to one another in the contagious joy of following Jesus
Our theme for IMMERSION this week comes from our vision of making disciples as a Church and Preschool: Connecting to one another in the contagious joy of following Jesus.
The bible verse setting the tone comes from Romans 15:13:
Romans 15:13
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
The first few devotions include explanations of how things work day-to-day. The initial devotions in this module are longer because explanations for each section are provided. The following options have been added to our normal routine:
Level 1
Level 1 introduces the JOY verse and devotion, denoted by a sunrise icon on the left. It includes spending five minutes (or more) anticipating joy in your day.
Levels two and three will be explained later.
This is what a typical morning session will look like:
- Read the selected bible verse heading for the day.
- Share aloud the prayer based on that verse
- Engage in your 5 minutes of JOY; note body and emotions
- Share the identity statement aloud
- Thank God and ask Him to bless your day.
That is less than seven minutes added.
With that, welcome to Day One’s morning session! First: an explanation of our 30-day habit. Every morning this month, we blend two opportunities together to fill your 5 minutes of joy:
- GO TO JOYS that get you moving for the day – and that you invite God into. This could be coffee, a morning walk, fresh air, worship or praise music, etc.
- ANTICIPATED JOYS in the upcoming day: Where you can picture joy entering your world through people or activities. Some people like examples, so…
This morning my GO TO JOY was a song of prayer. Then looked at my day, ANTICIPATING (1) relational joy over lunch with a friend, (2) satisfying joy in finishing a project at work and (3) personal care joy I would get in carving out time to walk while listening to a podcast.
IMPORTANT: While using GO TO JOYS and dwelling on ANTICIPATED JOYS today, the hope for joy-on-demand has us pay attention to how our body is responding as we dwell on these joys. For instance, a body might move with music; your mouth or stomach may experience a foretaste of lunch; your face may already break into a smile as you think about connecting with your friend; you can tap into the way you will feel after getting some healthy exercise.
Also note what emotions are firing as you think about being with your friend, listening to music, completing a task or getting exercise. As you dwell on these joys, your brain will start re-wiring (as God designed it.)
By the way, if you are one who journals (like me), hold off on writing until after your 5 minutes of joy time. You can journal about the joy experience after, inviting God to give you insights that will help for future joy-connecting exercises.
Here it is the morning devotion for today:
Monday, September 30, 2024:
Contagious Joy (morning)
Romans 15:13
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Pray aloud
God of hope, fill me with all joy and peace as I trust in You. Let me overflow with hope by the power of Your Holy Spirit working in me.
Five Minutes
Use your GO TO JOYS and ANTICIPATED JOYS to fill a 5-minute window (review explanation). Use an alarm to keep track of your five minutes.
Read the identity in Christ
statement aloud
In Christ, I am filled with the Holy Spirit and can anticipate overflowing with hope and being filled with joy and peace because I trust in God.
Close with thanks to God and
ask for His blessing today
Thank God for these moments together.
Ask Him to bless the upcoming day, then…
GO – in JOY, with JOY anticipating JOY
That’s the morning session. There will be a brief pondering point to go along with the daily theme. That is level 1.
Level 2
Level 2 ends the day with five minutes looking back in your day to find joy (the evening icon is the crescent moon on the right). We are building a joy habit at night too. It is the same verse as earlier, but with a slightly different focus.
Level 3
Level 3 is five minutes of savoring joy in the midst of your day. It occurs some time in between based on the rhythms of your day and week. It will focus on memories of the recent or distant past. This will be introduced tomorrow. For now, plan on doing level two tonight (if you are taking this part of the journey).
Contagious Joy (evening)
Monday, September 30, 2024
Romans 15:13
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Pray aloud
Thank You, God of hope, for the joy and peace I am about to dwell on. Let Your Holy Spirit help me review my day in a way that overflows with hope.
Review
Use your mind to go back and scour the day for
joyful events, connections, and moments. Relive the ANTICIPATED JOYS that occurred or the SURPRISE JOYS that made you smile. You are training your brain to look for joy. This builds the habit. Recall the body sensations and emotion. This solidifies the habit.
You are welcome to add in songs of thanks. Your goal is to fill a 5-minute window. Remember: use an alarm – but know that you are welcome to go longer if you want.
Read the identity in Jesus
statement aloud
In Jesus, we are the kind of people who overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit and give thanks for the joy and peace we experience through God.
Evening Prayer
Thank God for blessing the day, ask for peaceful rest, then GO to sleep – in grateful JOY, anticipating new JOY tomorrow under His grace.
A final note for the day:
The water line border at the beginning of each devotion:
is a visual prompt to immerse yourself fully in God’s Word and Holy Spirit during (and after) the devotion.
God bless our journey with contagious joy as we meditate on His Word morning and night!