{"id":774,"date":"2019-01-14T03:08:15","date_gmt":"2019-01-14T03:08:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/?p=774"},"modified":"2019-01-25T15:23:25","modified_gmt":"2019-01-25T15:23:25","slug":"philippians-4-challenge-day-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2019\/01\/philippians-4-challenge-day-7.html","title":{"rendered":"Philippians 4 Challenge: Day 7"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_3969\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3969\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/mtvpastor\/files\/2016\/01\/Philippians-4-Challenge.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-3969\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/mtvpastor\/sites\/403\/2016\/01\/Philippians-4-Challenge-300x181.jpg\" alt=\"www.pixabay.com\" width=\"300\" height=\"181\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3969\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">www.pixabay.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>HABIT #1:\u00a0<strong>Choose to be joyful.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>READ IT<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201c<em>Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! . . . and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.\u201d\u00a0<\/em>(Philippians 4:4,7)<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re back to habit one: Choose to be joyful. We\u2019re done learning new things. Now we\u2019re turning a corner and trying to make these four habits true disciplines in our lives.<\/p>\n<p>The Bible makes a clear connection between joy and peace. When you choose to be joyful, God\u2019s peace will guard your heart and your mind. In Galatians 5:22, the Bible starts listing the fruits of a Spirit-filled life this way: \u201c<em>But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace . . .<\/em>\u201d Joy and peace are intertwined. Choose to be joyful, and peace will follow closely behind.<\/p>\n<p>How does this happen? Think about it this way: when your heart and mind are not at peace, it\u2019s because you\u2019ve allowed outside circumstances to dictate how you feel and how you react. When you choose to be joyful, you\u2019re taking the initiative. You\u2019re choosing how to react. You\u2019re choosing joy. And when you choose to be joyful, God takes that act of faith and transforms it into supernatural peace that will guard your heart and your mind from the attacks of the enemy. Why should you choose to be joyful today? Because joy always leads to peace.<\/p>\n<p><strong>WRITE IT<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2019\/01\/philippians-4-challenge-day-7.html#comments\">Share in the comments below<\/a> and answer this question, \u201cWhat\u2019s something you\u2019ll encounter today that you can intentionally choose to be joyful about (that many others would not)?\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>PRAY IT<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Holy Spirit, as I choose to be joyful today, would your peace guard my mind and my heart in Christ Jesus. Amen.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>LIVE IT<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>You\u2019re a week into the Philippians 4 Challenge. Since you\u2019ve made it this far, share your story! Utilize social media and write a quick summary of the past week and what changes (big or small) that you\u2019ve already begun to see. Use\u00a0<em>#phil4challenge<\/em>\u00a0and we\u2019ll share your stories in upcoming devotionals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>HABIT #1:\u00a0Choose to be joyful. READ IT \u201cRejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! . . . and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.\u201d\u00a0(Philippians 4:4,7) We\u2019re back to habit one: Choose to be joyful. We\u2019re done learning new things.&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":607,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[365],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-phil4challenge"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Philippians 4 Challenge: Day 7 - Next Steps<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Day 7 of the Philippians 4 Challenge\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Philippians 4 Challenge: Day 7 - Next Steps\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Day 7 of the Philippians 4 Challenge\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2019\/01\/philippians-4-challenge-day-7.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Next Steps\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"facebook.com\/drjoshdaffern\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-01-14T03:08:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-01-25T15:23:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/mtvpastor\/files\/2016\/01\/Philippians-4-Challenge-300x181.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Josh Daffern\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@joshdaffern\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Philippians 4 Challenge: Day 7 - Next Steps","description":"Day 7 of the Philippians 4 Challenge","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"nofollow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Philippians 4 Challenge: Day 7 - Next Steps","og_description":"Day 7 of the Philippians 4 Challenge","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2019\/01\/philippians-4-challenge-day-7.html","og_site_name":"Next Steps","article_author":"facebook.com\/drjoshdaffern","article_published_time":"2019-01-14T03:08:15+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-01-25T15:23:25+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/mtvpastor\/files\/2016\/01\/Philippians-4-Challenge-300x181.jpg"}],"author":"Josh Daffern","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@joshdaffern","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2019\/01\/philippians-4-challenge-day-7.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2019\/01\/philippians-4-challenge-day-7.html","name":"Philippians 4 Challenge: Day 7 - Next Steps","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2019\/01\/philippians-4-challenge-day-7.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2019\/01\/philippians-4-challenge-day-7.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/mtvpastor\/files\/2016\/01\/Philippians-4-Challenge-300x181.jpg","datePublished":"2019-01-14T03:08:15+00:00","dateModified":"2019-01-25T15:23:25+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/#\/schema\/person\/8ac2e15479ad6a320d2082837203cb7c"},"description":"Day 7 of the Philippians 4 Challenge","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2019\/01\/philippians-4-challenge-day-7.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2019\/01\/philippians-4-challenge-day-7.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2019\/01\/philippians-4-challenge-day-7.html#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/mtvpastor\/files\/2016\/01\/Philippians-4-Challenge-300x181.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/mtvpastor\/files\/2016\/01\/Philippians-4-Challenge-300x181.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2019\/01\/philippians-4-challenge-day-7.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Philippians 4 Challenge: Day 7"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/","name":"Next Steps","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Josh Daffern","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/#\/schema\/person\/8ac2e15479ad6a320d2082837203cb7c","name":"Josh Daffern","description":"Born and raised in California, Josh graduated college from California Baptist University and spent two years as a missionary in Africa before coming back to America and finding the love of his life (Robin). Josh graduated from New Orleans Seminary with a Masters of Divinity and a Doctor of Ministry. Josh has been involved in full-time ministry for over twenty years. He enjoys hiking, beach volleyball, reading, playing anything competitive, and rough-housing with his kids. Josh, his gorgeous wife Robin, his outrageously handsome boys Zeke, Shepherd and Lincoln and his princess Elle, live in northern Virginia. Josh also blogs on Patheos as New Wineskins: an Apologist for the Modern Church and you can find links to all his content on joshdaffern.com. Enjoy the blog!","sameAs":["http:\/\/joshdaffern.com","facebook.com\/drjoshdaffern","https:\/\/x.com\/joshdaffern"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/author\/jdaffern"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/607"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=774"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":849,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774\/revisions\/849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}