{"id":37929,"date":"2025-10-30T22:00:34","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T05:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/?p=37929"},"modified":"2025-10-21T17:31:41","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T00:31:41","slug":"251031-option","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/251031-option\/","title":{"rendered":"Joy Is Always an Option"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"flex_column av_one_full  flex_column_div av-zero-column-padding first  avia-builder-el-0  avia-builder-el-no-sibling  \" style='border-radius:0px; '><section class=\"av_textblock_section \"  itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/BlogPosting\" itemprop=\"blogPost\" ><div class='avia_textblock  '   itemprop=\"text\" ><p style=\"text-align: right;\">by Max Lucado<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-37937 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/251031_1a.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/251031_1a.jpg 600w, https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/251031_1a-300x150.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>It would be folly to think life can be lived with no setbacks. But problems have no more power over us than we allow them to have. Remember, joy is more than a good mood. It is a deep-seated confidence in God\u2019s presence, power, and promises. Joy might feel elusive, and finding it might take a long time. But it always remains an option.<\/p>\n<p>Some of the saddest words in Scripture are recorded in Mark 6:5 (CEB). \u201c[Jesus] was unable to do any miracles there, except that he placed his hands on a few sick people and healed them.\u201d Why was Jesus unable to do the works? The answer is found in the next passage: \u201cHe was appalled by their disbelief\u201d (Mark 6:6 CEB).<\/p>\n<p>What a tragic loss! God was in their midst, and they did not seek him. Let\u2019s not make the same mistake.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-37832 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1-line_1-300x34.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"34\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1-line_1-300x34.jpg 300w, https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1-line_1.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<h3>God Made Our Brains. He Can Retrain Our Brains.<\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-37576 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/time.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"198\" height=\"300\" \/>Stuck in your head? Hounded by regrets? Weighed down by worry? Change is possible! The thoughts that have characterized your past need not characterize the rest of your life.<\/p>\n<p>In\u00a0<em><strong>Tame Your Thoughts<\/strong><\/em>, Max explores three key thought-management tools and then applies them to the most common thought problems: worry, guilt, anxiety, and other types of mental quicksand that threaten to trap us. God loves us too much to let us lead a life marked by poor thinking. He has not left us alone in this battle of the mind.<\/p>\n<p>shared with permission<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It would be folly to think life can be lived with no setbacks. But problems have no more power over us than we allow them to have. Remember, joy is more than a good mood. It is a deep-seated confidence in God\u2019s presence, power, and promises. Joy might feel elusive, and finding it might take a long time. But it always remains an option.<\/p>\n<p>Some of the saddest words in Scripture are recorded in Mark 6:5 (CEB). \u201c[Jesus] was unable to do any miracles there, except that he placed his hands on a few sick people and healed them.\u201d Why was Jesus unable to do the works? The answer is found in the next passage: \u201cHe was appalled by their disbelief\u201d (Mark 6:6 CEB).<\/p>\n<p>What a tragic loss! God was in their midst, and they did not seek him. Let\u2019s not make the same mistake.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37937,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[148],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-upwords"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37929"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37929\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37938,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37929\/revisions\/37938"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}