10 Minutes To JOY

“rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer”

Romans 12:12


Here’s a question for you, “do you desire more joy in your life in 2022?” Here is an acrostic for JOY, “Jesus, Others, You.” If you are like me and you are saying yes then reprioritize your life where you focus on Jesus first, seeking to know Him, then serving others by putting into practice what you are coming to know, and with whatever time you have left focus on you!  One of the best ways to get to know Jesus other than spending time in His Word is in prayer. Prayer is powerful as it changes us. It might not change our circumstances but it will change us and how we see God and the world around us. Prayer changes us by changing our focus which is what JOY is all about. In prayer we get our eyes on God and His will for our lives and take the focus off ourselves. Thats the first step to achieving JOY.

It was Charles Spurgeon who once said, “Ten minutes praying’ is better than a year’s murmuring.” I realize Jesus asked His disciples on more than one occasion, “would you not tarry with Me for even an hour” regarding them praying along with Jesus or interceding for Him as He had requested. Talk about missed opportunities. How would you respond to Jesus if He were to approach you and ask you to join Him in prayer as He sought the Father’s will? Don’t worry, you don’t need to answer that as I am sure you would love the opportunity to have knelt alongside Jesus and not only prayed with Him but to actually have had the once in eternity opportunity to pray for Jesus. That was then, this is now.

Today, God is inviting us to pray, to spend however long or little we enjoy praying interceding for a variety of things that when you add them all up Jesus has given way more than an hours worth of topics we can prayerfully address. Don’t worry about how long you pray, just make sure that you do pray. It was S.D. Gordon who once said, “You can do more than pray after you have prayed but you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed.”

The apostle Paul instructing his young protege Timothy about what to pray for wrote in 1 Timothy 2:1-4, “Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” Though this list was far from exhaustive, Paul went on to discuss the location of prayer in verse 8, “I desire therefore that the men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.” In Ephesians 6:18 the apostle Paul deals with the frequency of prayer when he penned these words, “ praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints” and in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 he writes, “pray without ceasing.”

Experience more JOY in just 10 minutes. Pray and remember, Jesus, Others, and You! Thats the secret to lasting JOY!


“Jesus said to him, “ ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Matthew 22:37–39


I LOVE YOU!