Joy... Where Is Yours?

Joy is something that makes or breaks every one's lives. Joy makes each day easier to face and each trial easier to handle. In life if you have joy other people notice. If you do not have joy other people notice that as well. Joy effects your life AND the lives of those around you. Joy allows you to not only face your life with confidence and happiness, but also to engender those same feelings in others.

Joy is necessary in every aspect of life. Depending on where you find your joy determines whether or not your joy is always there when you need it. Where we "find" our joy is extremely important in life. Often we find joy when we get something new, when we get to do something we love, or even in other people. When we find joy in those things, we are only feeling the emotion. The emotion will leave when the item is not new any more, we don't get to do special things, or see special people.

How do we receive joy that is true and constant then? In order to have constant joy we must get our joy from the only thing in life that is always constant. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. If we choose to find joy in God our joy will never leave us. We must remember that it is a choice to find joy in God though. If we purposely choose to rejoice in the Lord, the emotion will come.

In everything God gives us He requires effort on our part first. The story of the lady and the oil, Joseph in the prison, and Moses with all of the miracles he preformed... they all had to do something first. God asked them to do something within their power BEFORE He would take care of what they could not. It is the same with joy. God gives us joy, it is our choice to reach out and take hold of it or not. We may not have to ask all of our neighbors for jars to put oil in, but we might have to choose to hold our tongue or praise Him when we are down. However, when we do our part to be joyful, God will give you joy in ways you can't even imagine!

Philippians 4:4 says Rejoice in the Lord always! Again I say rejoice! This week let's all work on ALWAYS remembering to rejoice! Because if you believe the Word to be holy and that disobeying His Word is sin... then when we choose not to be joyful... according to this verse we are choosing sin...

Thank you for rejoicing in the Lord with me!

Tyler