The Key to Joy!

The Key to Joy: It's all about "Relationships", "Communication" and "Forgiveness"!....

As my good friend Ron says, "It's all about relationships".

 With "social media"...it's about "friends", "connections" and "followers".

If you can't wait to get to the end of this post...It's all about Forgiveness!


Over the course of time, I have added, "Yes, and it's all about Communication."
Communication, Communication, Communication.

All about Relationships: Yes, with Jesus through God our Father...and then relationship with each other.

To develop any relationship, we need to listen and to communicate.

So it's all about Communication, Communication Communication.

With God, we communicate through Prayer.

With each other, we communicate in many ways.

But in any relationship...even with the best of Relationship and Communication, we mess up. It's called sin.

With God we can repent and ask for forgiveness.

So to complete the circle...I have added yes, and it's all about Forgiveness.
Forgiveness, Forgiveness, Forgiveness.

"To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover the prisoner was you." -Corrie ten Boom



Just as we can have a relationship with God, through Jesus Christ and with each other...We can communicate our love  and needs to Him and also to other...but in the process we have a tendency to mess up. But again, we can ask God for forgiveness...and as He has made His forgiveness available to us, we then also need to forgive each other.


Alot of times...when there is a lack of joy in our lives and we have forgiven others and ourselves...we might forget to forgive our parents for real or imaginary hurts. Perception is real. 



"Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and clearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the LORD forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity."  Romans 3:12-14

As Eugene H. Peterson says in The Message: Matthew 6: "In prayer there is a connection between what God does and what you do. You can't get forgiveness from God, for instance, without also forgiving others. If you refuse to do your part, you cut yourself off from God's part." 

"To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover the prisoner was you." -Corrie ten Boom

  So how can we NOT forgive others?

As we truly experience God's forgiveness and grace, it's then pretty easy to forgive others! Or at least it should be!

So, do we have joy?



If not, might be a good time to examine our relationships with others...our spouse, family members and maybe more important to examine our relationships with our parents...if we still have living parents. 

I also remember a verse from the Bible in Exodus 20:12  "Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you."


So don't forget to forgive parents, even if they are long gone! Time is short, eternity is long.  

As Don Wilkerson says, "Never be defined by your past. It's a lesson not a life sentence.”

"To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover the prisoner was you." -Corrie ten Boom

 "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity." Psalm 133:1
As Dietrich Bonhoeffer In Life Together says, "this is the Scriptures' praise of life together under the Word. But now we can rightly interpret the words "in unity" and say, "for brethren to dwell together through Christ."  For Jesus Christ alone is our unity. "He is our peace.
Through him alone do we have access to one another, joy in one another, and fellowship with one another."

A parent's greatest joy is found in this verse: "I have no greater joy than to hear that  my children are walking in the truth." 3 John:4

When we do that...we can truly have JOY!

The Power of Vision and Visioneering

As George Barna says in his book, The Power of Vision: Discover and Apply God’s Plan For Your Life and Ministry, “Our greatest obligation while we are on Earth is to know God more intimately and to bring ever greater glory to His name by our efforts. To assist us in that effort, God wants to share with you His vision for your life and ministry.” 

He goes on to say “Just as the pastor is the leader of a church, you are called to be the leader of your personal ministry and to live that ministry in accordance with God’s expectations and desires for you, as outlined through the vision.” 

He further states, “Aggressively seek to understand what God is calling you to do that distinguishes you from every other believer and that makes you a unique ambassador for Christ.”

He ends his conclusion in his book by stating, “Use your vision as the decision-making filter that determines which opportunities you pursue and which ones you reject.”

Andy Stanley in his book Visioneering:   God’s blueprint For Developing And Maintaining Vision Speaks about Good Ideas Versus God Ideas. He says that “Good ideas are limited to our potential, connections, and resources. If you are simply pursuing a good idea, then you need to devote a great deal of time and energy trying to figure out how to pull it off. 

A divine vision, on the other hand, is limited only by God’s potential and resources. That means anything is possible. If it is just a good idea, you have to make it happen. When god gives you a vision, there’s a sense in which you stand back and watch it happen.”

So if it’s just one of my numerous good ideas…I have to work hard to make it happen…and if it happens, I get the credit.  On the other hand if it’s a real vision from the Lord…I still have to work hard. but if it happens…especially if I don’t have the know-how, etc. to make it happen…then God gets the credit.