31 Mar How to Cultivate Joy in the Face of Trials
Six weeks ago, before the coronavirus pandemic hit the U.S., I wrote a blog on how to cultivate joy. Little did I know how pertinent that information would be six weeks later!
We are now in uncharted territory with many unanswered questions, and it is only natural to get rattled by the circumstances. Some of us may be little effected personally, in our own life, but have concern for family and friends. Others of us may have had our own lives turned upside down. Others of us are somewhere in between.
The gap between what we want to believe and what we actually believe
Nearly everyone is faced with uncertainties that, if we let them, can rob us of joy and steal our peace. And while there are Scriptures that should help restore our joy and peace, they often don’t work. We know the passages, but they don’t help.
- My God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:10
- Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7
We may want to believe these verses, we may try to believe them, we may sort of believe them, but they don’t restore our joy and peace.
This, of course, is why a troubled man replied to Jesus, “I do believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24)
Modern neuroscience helps us understand this gap between what we want and try and sort of believe, and a settled faith accompanied by joy.
Light from modern neuroscience
We learn that our true beliefs are lodged deeply in our subconscious, and sometimes there is a difference between what we think and want to believe on a conscious level and what we actually do believe on a subconscious level.
This gap can be closed by repeating truth over and over until the truth sinks deeply into our subconscious where our fundamental attitudes and values reside. It is at that point that we are deeply changed.
In a past blog, I quoted Dr. Caroline Leaf, a Christian neuroscientist:
Whatever you think about the most will grow, so the more you think a particular thought, the stronger it grows. You can’t just apply a thought once and think change has happened.
After a period of repeated thinking about a choice over and over, the new thought moves into the subconscious level, where it becomes part of our internal perception. It is at this level that we are deeply changed. (Switch On Your Brain, p. 123-124)
This is one reason, I believe, the Bible teaches us to meditate on Scripture (Joshua 1:8). Meditation sends the truth through our brains over and over, and through the repetition process, we are eventually deeply changed.
This is why we may want to believe something, and yet we are not deeply settled in our faith. We have not sent that truth through our minds often enough that it has sunk to our subconscious where we are deeply changed.
For that reason, in my personal worship system, I create things that I repeat over and over, because I want to be deeply changed by the truth and know that repetition is the key.
If something is important, it must be repeated until it changes us!
So, because I wanted to close the gap between what I know about joy and peace and what I experience, I created a video of the truth in that blog from six weeks ago about How to Cultivate Joy. I am in a season in which I watch the video every day. And I will continue to do so until I am satisfied with the level of change I have experienced.
Free Video
In hopes that it may help build your faith and cultivate your joy in the face of the COVID-19 uncertainties, I want to give you this video.
The video presents the two things we can do to cultivate joy in the face of intimidating circumstances:
- First, burn into our minds the four benefits of trials.
- Spiritual transformation
- Greater impact in ministry
- Greater eternal reward
- Deeper fellowship with God
- Second, fix our focus on the future when, no matter how bad things may be now, in the end all will be more than well.
I invite you to download the free video and watch it every day for at least 30 days. Neuroscience tells us that it takes around 30 days for the brain to rewire itself, replace old beliefs with new beliefs, and to be capable of functioning according to the new truth.
My prayer is that the truth in this video will help change you deeply from the inside out and help you cultivate joy in the face of uncertain times. There is no email opt-in required for access to the video, and I encourage you to share this blog post with your family and friends who might like to have the video also.
To access the free download for the How to Cultivate Joy video, just click here. You can save it to your Dropbox account, if you have one, or do a direct download to save to your desktop.
For more information on the importance of burning biblical truths into our minds, watch my video, Master the Bible So Well That the Bible Masters You, which is currently free to my email subscribers.
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