Never Running on Empty Again!

Joy is deeply rooted in our experience of grace - knowing, by experience, our “unmerited specialness” to God and the assurance of His empowering presence to become who He uniquely created us to be.

Joy is meant to be our fuel for living from the heart Jesus gave us, for living wholeheartedly. The source of that joy is relational, not circumstantial.  It’s in our real world experiences of God, of walking with Him, talking with Him - of His kindness, His goodness. That’s where His peace and joy become more real! The scriptures and truths that we know about joy become stories we can remember and an encouragement we can share that people will believe because they can see in our eyes that we’ve lived it.

The reason we’re looking at Joy after talking about Grace Spaces and Identity is that every process of maturity and transformation it needs to be field with joy.  The Holy Spirit never intended for us to navigate our lives apart from joy.

When we become disconnected from joy, that’s when life becomes a heavy yoke instead of a relational experience with God where everything can be redeemed. 

God knows that the power of joy is immense. So immense that of all the things that carried Jesus through the unimaginable horrors of the cross, Hebrews 12:2 says that it was the “JOY set before Him” that allowed Him to make it through. And by the way, that joy was the joy of your heart-to-heart relationship with God that could only happen through grace.

If Jesus relied on joy to make it through, then we would be wise to not ignore how important joy is in navigating every part of life, especially our grace spaces!

So, here are some of the questions we’re going to explore in this coaching focus as we’re learning to navigate our Grace Spaces with joy:

What exactly is the fullness of joy in John 15:11 that Jesus wanted to remain in us?

How can we become more aware of our joy levels?

What uniquely increases joy for each of us and creates joy reserves?

What disconnects us from joy and how do we return the joy of the Lord?

~ excerpt from the NEW Navigating Grace Spaces, Week 3: The Fuel of Joy

100% of the gifts we receive go directly to providing Grace Spaces books and resources to those in jail, prisons, transitional housing and anyone in need. Want to see what that looks like?

This month, we had the JOY of giving over 150 books away to women at the Aglow Prison Retreat, both faithful volunteers and “grads.” A “grad” is any woman who has connected with APM either inside a facility or through a transition home because they’ve “graduated” to a new life!

The Higher Call by Earlene Leming and The Image by Allison Bown were given out, as well as Earlene Leming’s newest book, Vessels of Honor. Vessels is a revision of an earlier book published in 1997 that has been revised to offer a shorter, updated version of Earlene’s miraculous healing story, the beginning of APM and a beautiful testimony of the first “grad,” Jill - who is now the president of APM almost 40 years later!

Its purpose is specifically for those in prison or jail who need hope that Jesus really can change lives. Short and purposely easy to read, Grace Spaces will continue to provide this book (and our other resources) free of charge to jails, prisons and homes.

YOUR gifts are making that possible! Thank you for showing your gratitude through your giving and supporting this work. Thank you for remembering the prisoners! Matthew 25:36

We now offer PayPal as a giving option!