Saturday, October 12, 2024:
Joy Story with Jesus (morning)
2 Samuel 12:1-10
Nathan Confronts David
1 The Lord sent Nathan to David. When he came to him, he said, “There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. 2 The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, 3 but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him.
4 “Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.”
5 David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, “As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this must die! 6 He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.”
7 Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. 8 I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you all Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. 9 Why did you despise the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. 10 Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.’
Psalm 51:8 ESV
Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
Pray aloud
Lord Jesus, where my sinful choices are gaining traction, break me. In doing so, let me hear joy and gladness so that I can rejoice even in brokenness.
Five Minutes
Use your GO TO JOYS and ANTICIPATED JOYS to fill a 5-minute window. Remember: use an alarm. If necessary, review the explanation.
Read the identity in Christ
statement aloud
In Jesus, we get to experience joy and gladness rather than condemnation once God breaks through our unhealthy and sinful choices.
Closing Prayer
Close with thanks to God for these moments together.
Ask Him to bless the upcoming day, then…
GO – in JOY, with JOY anticipating JOY
Saturday, October 12, 2024:
Sometime During Your Day
Level 3: Savoring joys of the past.
Journal Prompt:
Joy memory related to winter time.
Key Words:
Pondering Point
Can God really use joy to overcome sorrow?
Joyful Journey talks about a new normal that results from the daily practice of joy building:
Creating a new normal: Step 1: The first step (of three) to a new normal is learning to feel appreciation in my body. Appreciation, interactive gratitude and thankfulness will all work provided I notice what I feel like in my body during the emotions. Noticing the body sensations insures that the right parts of my brain are working together (prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate and insula). When my brain discovers that I can feel appreciation at will, a new range of possibilities opens for me. I can open this door through interactive gratitude.
~ Wilder, Kang, Loppnow, Loppnow, Joyful Journey, page 64.
Creating a new normal, step 2: The second step toward a new normal is learning to sustain the feeling of appreciation until I can feel appreciation for five straight minutes. To do this, I use the interactive gratitude exercise to collect a series of appreciation experiences and memories by giving them names like island sunrise, morning coffee, Fido at lake, Julie's birthday. Now I can keep my appreciation going longer by remembering one appreciation experience after another. When I can do this for 5 minutes, my brain realizes that I can feel this as long as I like.
~ Wilder, Kang, Loppnow, Loppnow, Joyful Journey, page 66.
Prayer
Thank You for the reminder that there is joy on the other side of repentance. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that You break rejoice. Amen.
Joy Story with Jesus (evening)
Saturday, October 12, 2024
Psalm 51:8 ESV
Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
Pondering Point
Lets head into the evening’s conclusion with a quote from Joyful Journey about engaging God in the conversation of prayer.
From the book Joyful Journey:
Many of us have been rightfully taught that prayer is conversation with God. Interactive gratitude is a form of prayer, thus it is also a conversation with God. This sounds simple. Why then do many of us only engage in a monologue with God and not a true conversation? We tell Him our thoughts but we don't listen for His response and miss the blessed opportunity for intimacy with Him. Intimacy with God is why it is so important for us to learn to listen for God's response.
~ Wilder, Kang, Loppnow, Loppnow, Joyful Journey, page 18.
Pray aloud
Thank You, let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
Review
Scour the day for ANTICIPATED or SURPRISE JOYS. You are training your brain to look for joy. This builds the habit. Recall the body sensations and emotion.
This solidifies the habit. Remember: use an alarm
Read the identity in Jesus
statement aloud
In Jesus, we let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
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.