Are You Joy-Deprived?

"I came so that everyone would have life...in its fullest."      John 10:10 CEV

Your lungs need oxygen to thrive, your body needs food to thrive, and your soul needs joy to thrive.  How can you tell when someone is joy-deprived?  By how they look and what they say.  One Bible teacher says: "When I began to understand John 10:10...I realized the enemy had deceived me into thinking that enjoying things was not important...I had come to believe--falsely, of course--that if I was having fun, something was wrong...I must not be working hard enough!  I never saw my father enjoy life and it seemed to aggravate him when others did, so I just grew up thinking something must be wrong with it.  I can remember being told to be quiet when I laughed out loud...The seventeenth-century...[writer] Madame Guyon said that the highest call for every child of God is to enjoy God.  I remember what a heavy load lifted off of me the first time I read that...I was working so hard trying to please God that the thought of simply enjoying Him had not occurred to me at all.  I had never heard of such a thing!...I had been a committed church member for over twenty years before I learned that God wanted me to enjoy Him and the life He had given me."  Can you relate?  If so, it's time to make some changes in your life.  Take a break without feeling guilty; you will be much more productive when you're rested and refreshed.  Recreation is not "unspiritual"; it's essential to staying in balance.  We live in a driven, stressed-out society, but you can change; you can be joyful if you choose to.

This message taken from: Daily Devotional - The Word For You Today