Joy Is a Choice You Can Make Today , livre ebook

Baker Publishing Group - Kay Warren

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Live a more joyful life--starting today.When trouble comes your way, your first thought probably isn't about joy. More than likely, you feel fear, panic, worry, anger, or even hopelessness.But here's a secret that can change your life: The level of joy you experience on any given day, in any given situation--no matter how challenging it is--is totally up to you. It's not dependent on others--what they do or don't do, how they behave, or what they say. It's not dependent on your circumstances. It cannot be held hostage by pain, disappointment, or grief.Joy is a choice, and no one has exemplified that more than Kay Warren. While this text was written before the death of her son Matthew, the message Kay wants to share with you remains the same--you can choose joy. And if you want to discover how you can make that choice--every day--you've come to the right place. Drawn from the first three chapters of Kay's popular Choose Joy, this little book illuminates the life of Jesus--a life that exhibited great joy despite opposition, sorrow, and pain--showing you that God created you not for a life of struggle, but for a life of joyful relationship with him and with others.

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Philosophie et théologie

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Publié par	Baker Publishing Group
Date de parution	26 janvier 2016
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781493402670
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0115€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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Cover

Title Page

Copyright Page
© 2016 by Kay Warren
Published by Revell
a division of Baker Publishing Group
P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.revellbooks.com
Ebook edition created 2016
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
ISBN 978-1-4934-0267-0
This book is excerpted from Choose Joy: Because Happiness Isn’t Enough , published in 2012.
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com
Scripture quotations labeled CEV are from the Contemporary English Version © 1991, 1992, 1995 by American Bible Society. Used by permission.
Scripture quotations labeled GW are from G OD ’ S W ORD ®. © 1995 God’s Word to the Nations. Used by permission of Baker Publishing Group.
Scripture quotations labeled MSG are from The Message by Eugene H. Peterson, copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations labeled NCV are from the New Century Version®. Copyright © 1987, 1988, 1991 by Word Publishing, a division of Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations labeled NJB are from THE NEW JERUSALEM BIBLE, copyright © 1985 by Darton, Longman & Todd, Ltd. and Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc. Reprinted by permission.
Scripture quotations labeled NKJV are from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations labeled NLT are from the Holy Bible , New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations labeled Phillips are from The New Testament in Modern English, revised edition—J. B. Phillips, translator. © J. B. Phillips 1958, 1960, 1972. Used by permission of Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc.

Contents
Cover 1
Title Page 3
Copyright Page 4
1.Seeking a Life of Joy 7
2.Showing Our True Colors 23
3.Rediscovering Jesus, the Man of Joy 35
Notes 57
About the Author 59
Back Ads 60
Back Cover 64

1 Seeking a Life of Joy
He will yet fill your mouth with laughter
and your lips with shouts of joy.
Job 8:21
J oy does not come easily to me; I’m definitely more of a glass-half-empty kind of gal. In fact, I’ve struggled with low-level depression as far back as I can remember. As a little girl, I was emotionally intense—I cried easily, agonized over the pain others felt, and carried the weight of the world on my small shoulders. So I’m not talking to you about joy from the perspective of one of those deliriously happy, peppy people who never have a down day. Some days I’m thrilled just to survive!
The Bible gives some commands that are extremely hard to understand and even harder to live out. One of the most difficult commands is to forgive our enemies. In light of the terrible cruelty and evil we can inflict on each other, this seems like asking an armchair athlete to climb Mt. Everest—impossible. The Bible also says not to worry about anything. Anything? Really? Many of us spend a good portion of every waking hour worried or anxious about something. How could God reasonably expect us not to worry? But to me, even harder than either of those two commands is the one found in James 1:2: “When troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy” (NLT).
Are you kidding me? When trouble comes my way, my first thoughts aren’t usually about experiencing great joy. My typical reaction is more along the lines of fear, panic, worry, and even hopelessness. At the very least, I reserve the right to gripe and moan about my troubles. Hardly an opportunity for great joy.
It’s really because of my own struggles to live with joy that I began to explore why my experiences didn’t match up with Scripture. I studied the life of Jesus Christ and observed the way biblical characters such as King David; Mary, the mother of Jesus; the apostle Paul; and James, the half-brother of Jesus, reacted to trouble and sorrow and hard times. For instance, the apostle Paul wrote in Romans 5:
We continue to shout our praise even when we’re hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we’re never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary—we can’t round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit! (vv. 3–5 MSG)
I saw a Grand Canyon–sized gap between their lives and mine, and it began to bother me. It was clear that joy—even in pain—was something the biblical writers expected Christians to experience on a regular basis, but I wasn’t. Wondering what was different about their faith that allowed them to respond to their circumstances with joy launched me on an intensely personal search. Why was there a discrepancy between my experiences and theirs? I needed to know how to bridge the gigantic gap that was keeping me from living a joyful life.
I’ll fill you in on what I’m learning as we go along, but let me jump to the conclusion of the search and tell you the bottom line: Joy is a choice . Nothing else I will say is more critical to the way you live out your years than that small sentence. Joy is a choice. The level of joy you experience is completely and totally up to you. It is not dependent on anyone else—what they do or don’t do, how they behave or don’t behave. Joy cannot be manipulated by the actions of puny human beings. It is not dependent on the amount of sadness or suffering or difficulties you endure. Joy cannot be held hostage to fear, pain, anger, disappointment, sadness, or grief. At the end of any given day, the amount of joy you experienced is the exact amount of joy you chose to experience. You, my friend, are in charge. The sooner you embrace this pivotal reality, the sooner you can begin to live a more joyful life.
The Bell Curve of Joy
Each of us approaches the idea of joy differently. You may remember from a high school or college astronomy class the Gaussian probability distribution—yeah, probably not—but in simple English, think of a bell curve. At one end of the bell curve are people who don’t struggle much to have joy.

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