My team and I have been doing life in the jungle, in Ecuador, for the last three weeks. Soccer games, planting corn, painting, farming, praying and laying hands on people, giving our testimonies, children’s church and digging deep into the word of God are all things that made up our time here. There were countless days were I would say out loud, I GET to live in the jungle, in Ecuador, for a month. God is So good. I will be honest though and say living in the jungle did bring up some honest challenges.
I share these struggles not out of ingratitude but because I want to share what the Lord has been teaching me. Living conditions alone were challenging. Cockroaches scattering on the floors and walls became the norm. I can now say I have had a cockroach scatter up my leg. Spider eggs covered every wall. Chickens walked in and out of the house like it was theirs. Bats also welcomed themselves in as they pleased. I received more bug bites then I could ever begin to count. The heat was intense and challenging for me because it seemed to flare my vertigo, which caused me to feel dizzy. We were constantly out of runnig water, so showers became a thing of the past. I actually took 3 all month and they were all from a different source of water. One in the river, another by a bucket and the third in the rain. These challenges might seem small to some but the Lord spoke to my heart through them in no small way.
Through every challenge the Lord was faithful to speak two words to me, Choose Joy. Joy is a choice. It is not something we have to work towards to acheive, it is a choice we make. These two words have honestly changed my life. I have gone through a lot of hardships in my life and I have allowed each one determine my joy. When I am walking through a hardship I just sit in it waiting for the Lord to pull me out and take me to His joy. The Lords joy is not hidden from us but we must discover it. We must choose and pursue it.
The enemy is very good at deceiving us in thinking that we cant experience joy until later. It will come after we overcome whatever hardship we are in. Satan is the Father of all lies and that is one of his great lies. I have honestly read the verse that joy will come in the morning and I took that literal. That if I cried myself to sleep at night that I would awake with joy covering me. The tears still remained when I would wake and this is why I think they did. I choose to keep my heart there. I dont think this verse means when we wake up in th A.M. but when our hearts are awakened to the joy of the Lord. When our souls wake up and see that His joy is not hidden from us. The joy of the Lord is for us to experience NOW. It is not in circumstances but in God himself. Gods joy is always assessable to us becuase He has given us His Holy Spirit.
Check out this verse….
” If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much More will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” – Luke 11:13
We pray for joy and God doesnt give us a joy that lasts for the morning but HIS spirit..
” But the fruit of the Spirit is love, JOY, peace, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control”
– Galatians 5:22
How beautiful is it to finally see that joy is not in circumstance but in God himself. God not only wants us to experience His joy now but always. In the mist of brokenness, in pain, in the waiting, in healing, and in the jungle with cockroaches crawling up your leg. What a beautiful God we serve! He wants us to live in joy. HIS JOY. A joy that cannot be robbed from us by any circumstance. With this lesson I am learning that bitterness and unforgivness are all a choice as well. I want my heart to be far removed from those things so I pray for more joy. I know now that I am not praying for this glimpse of joy to come in the morning but for an overflow of the Lords spirit to invade my heart.
Be Joyful Always.
