Joy

Joy. I Thessalonians 5:16 says, "Be joyful always.” Today we are going to look at some ways to have continuous joy, even when life is hard and our circumstances seem overwhelming. I’d like us to start by first defining joy. Webster’s dictionary defines joy as an exhilaration of the spirit, happiness. Delight. Anything causing this, to rejoice. The Life Application Bible defines joy as emotion evoked by well-being, success or good fortune, gladness or delight. Don’t you wish they sold joy in a bottle? So, anytime that you ran out you could just open the bottle and rub some on. 2 Corinthians 2:14-15 says

14But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. 15For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. Are you wearing the fragrance of joy today?

There are many things that can come along and snatch our joy away. Maybe you’ve been there before, maybe you are there now. You are in a spiritual depression, a low. Your walk with God seems, dry and desert like. Something comes along in life that happens so suddenly or tragically and our joy is ripped from our hearts. It’s different things for all of us. You may have lost a husband or a child. You may be suffering physically or in pain. You may have loved ones or dear friends who you watch that are going through difficult times. All of us have things that we go through that can take our joy. Yet, what can we do when we loose our joy? When trials come. When you are living the desert life? King David wrote Psalm 63 while he was in the Desert of Judah, he says in verse 1 “O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you, my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you in a dry and weary land where there is no water.” However, if we can’t rejoice about anything else in our life currently, we can have joy by knowing that if you are in Christ, your name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. Whenever our lives get to the point where our circumstances are grim, we can rejoice and be glad in the fact that we will one day see Him face to face and our joy will be entirely complete. Psalm 51:12 says, “Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.” Having joy in our salvation can sustain us through difficult times.

Lori