You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of your presence and the pleasures of living with you forever. -Psalm 16:11 NLT

There is joy in God’s presence and pleasures of living with Him. Focusing our thoughts on God and not ourselves doesn’t deny us of the things we want, being with Him in His presence actually gives us joy. We all have hopes and dreams for our lives, plans we want to accomplish and goals to chase after. The world tells us that we need to open the doors for ourselves and make things happen. We fear that if we don’t hustle, then we will miss out. But friends, that is just not the case. The joys of our lives are going to be given to us through His presence, and every good thing we have is from above. We don’t need to stress and strive to make it all happen for ourselves; we get to rest in the joy of just being with Him and He will fill our lives with what we need. God will reveal to us the way of life and the way to go, we don’t need to be filled with striving and anxiety.

I spent more years than I like to admit stressing and trying to figure out how to make things happen in my life. Always trying to take control and ultimately falling flat on my face time and time again. In all truth, I didn’t trust God to work for me. Not that I didn’t believe He could, because I did, but that He just wouldn’t for whatever reason. But when I shifted my thoughts from where and what I thought I should be doing, and just rested in His presence, I did truly find that joy that the Bible speaks of. I could finally sleep at night without tossing and turning. I could stop spending my days endlessly searching for this or that. I could just…be. I could simply be with Him, and trust that whatever problems came up He would lead me through them. Whatever doors needed to be opened He would open, and I would follow in obedience through them. When I began to get close to God, He drew close to me and my life has never been the same. This is what I want for all of us too, the joy of His presence that only comes when we are walking one foot in front of the other, directly towards Him.