How to Share Your Faith Using Pocket Full of Sunshine

Have you ever met a truly happy person? You know, one of those people that you can feel their spirit singing across the grocery store or hear their contagious laugh from across the room? I love when I do come across a cheerful spirit. You walk into their delightful presence and immediately you are welcomed with an audible greeting such as a chipper, “Hello!”

When I heard Natasha Beddingfield’s new hit Pocketful of Sunshine for the first time, I felt that she summed up that truly joyful spirit perfectly. Check out these lyrics:

I got a pocket, got a pocket full of sunshine.
I got a love and I know that it's all mine. Oh, oh, oh.

Yet the reality is that it’s actually very rare to randomly come across an individual who is truly happy from the inside out. When is the last time you met such a person, really? The last couple times I was at the store, I could barely get the clerk to look at me, let alone wrestle a smile out of them. Sometimes, it seems to be the same with Christians, as well. Chuck Swindoll describes it vividly, “People come to the Lord and put a lemon in their mouth.” Part of Natasha Beddingfield’s song seamlessly illustrates the joy that should flow out of our relationship with Jesus.

There’s a place that I go, but nobody knows, where the rivers flow, and I call it home.
And there's no more lies, in the darkness, there’s light.
And nobody cries. There’s only butterflies.

“There's only butterflies.” As a Christian do you experience butterflies on the inside? And our joy on the inside will permeate all that we do. Those around us who do not know the Lord need to not only hear about His joy but see it and feel it. That is the Holy Spirit at work. When we come from a deep place of hopelessness and then walk into the arms of Christ, the Holy Spirit is now alive in us!

The Bible repeatedly depicts joy as central to our life in Christ. Here are a few examples:

Don’t be dejected and sad, for the joy of the LORD is your strength. (Nehemiah 8:10).
Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice! (Philippians 4:4).
We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We are writing these things so that you may fully share our joy. (1 John 1:3-4).

We live in a world full of hurting people who are desperate to know God’s joy and love in their lives. It’s our job, as friends and sons and daughters of the Heavenly Father, to proclaim His joy. So, use Natasha Beddingfield’s Pocketful of Sunshine to ignite some conversations with those around you.

Here are a few open ended questions to get you started:

• Ask your friends if they believe in God. What is their perception of Him? Do they see Him as all loving and joyful?
• Find out if your friends have ever been hurt by a Christian. If so, maybe ask them to forgive you/us for wrongfully portraying Christ and His love.
• Tell them what the Bible has to say on the Truth of Christ’s joy and love.
• Share with them from your personal experience a time when you were weighed down by the world’s sorrows and how Christ offers True joy for those who choose to trust and believe in Him.

Make a choice today to proclaim His joy to the world by your smile and cheerful nature, because people are watching and…

The Son's on my side and takes me up for a ride. I smile up to the sky.

Jeannae Flageolle serves as a writer for Dare 2 Share Ministries International (D2S) in Arvada, Colorado, a ministry committed to energizing and equipping teenagers to know, live, share and own their faith in Jesus. For more information about D2S, please visit www.dare2share.org.