Spritual Habits

A couple weeks ago I was spending time with some men down in the city at a local mission. In our time of bible study we were exploring some spiritual habits that are found in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 "Be joyful always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."
3 Things:

1. Be Joyful always
2. Pray continually
3. Give thanks in all circumstances

Joy is something that I greatly value, when I can since it in my life I never want it to go away, as if anyone would. We are told that the joy is a fruit of the Holy Spirit working in our lives, however there has been long extended periods of my life where either I suppressed my joy or simply was not bearing fruit, maybe those two go hand in hand. However, I have not reached a point in my life where there was not hope of Joy ever,not yet. Sometimes being around guys who live on the streets (no matter the circumstance that brought them there) you can see in their face the emptiness and despair. But when hope cracks the surface and the joy starts surfacing it is a beautiful thing. To many people go through life, joyless. However I think that there is a connection with the other 2 habits, pray continually and giving thanks. We talk about prayer and do our little "lets say something we are thankful for" exercises. But are they really something that is part of our spiritual health, or journey with Christ. My observation and I could be wrong but it seems to me that the more I am in this praying continual thing, this ongoing continual fellowship with God and practicing thankfulness. It is much more evident and possible for the Holy Spirit to start producing the fruit of joy in my life. But I have to be intentional about the other two, maybe even intentional about being joyful. Is that not what Paul writes, BE, PRAY, GIVE. There is no pre-requisites, no special training needed in order to do this. It is God's will for us. But to many of us let our present circumstance influence and shape our feelings, perspective whatever. When the exact opposite needs to happen, we need to be shaped by God in our circumstance. That is what happens in a man's heart who has lost everything, no job, no family, no home, no friends, no money, nothing no hope of survival, can crack a smile, bear a tear of peace, contentment, happiness because the power of God is working and producing His fruit in that person life. Spending the better part of the past 10 years working in the Social Work field I have seen, touched, and walked in a lot of people's misfortune, pain, sin, despairl, hurts and fears. I can tell you from experience that what Jesus said in John 10:10 is true, there is a wolf, a thief that wants to kill, steal and destroy. Let's not let that happen in our lives. Let's start doing God's will.