eucharisteo

Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

Psalm 51:12

On this journey, holding tight to the Lord's joy is as important as it is difficult. My deepest hope is to be completely filled with joy over the gift of life God has given. I want living for Him to be enough- but in reality it is not, not for our weak human hearts. In frustration and in pain the one size fits all thankfulness doesn't light up and revive our souls the way we want. But in God's divine timing he lead me to read One Thousand Gifts. Just a quarter of a way in, the Lord is reshaping the way I find joy and "eucharisteo". 

"Slapping a sloppy brush over everything in my life leaves me deeply thankful for very few things in my life." 

So just like the journey Ann Voskamp took, I'm going to practice finding joy in each moment of life. Fully embracing eucharisteo. Today as the enemy struck and I felt as lost as ever, I looked for joy and I found it. I found it in my mom waking me up instead of an alarm, I found it in a hazy, calm morning. I found it in time to read. I find it now, with my house full of people, quiet and tired, but together. 

Joy in the little things, joy in this everyday life leads us to fully embrace the joy of our salvation- this joy sustains and propels us forward. We begin to see all these gifts and we are filled with a spirit of gratefulness and we live to share it with others, we are living for Christ. Our joy leads to joy, leads to joy, leads to joy, leads to GLORY. The glory of Christ is revealed in our lives when we live fully for Him. God has created for us a beautiful cycle of joy to live in, a cycle I want to stay in. My confusions, my frustration, my hopes and needs should be cemented in this cycle until the joy seeps into every pore of my being and it is all I know. This, is living fully for Christ.