"Then I will go to the altar of God,
to God my exceeding joy and I will praise you with lyre, o God, my God." -
Psalm 43:4
"You make known to me the path of
life, in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are
pleasures forevermore." -Psalm 16:11
What
is joy? The dictionary defines joy as a feeling of great pleasure and
happiness. It is a happy, glad feeling. However there is a fine line between
happiness and joy. Happiness is defined as an emotion experienced when in a
state of wellbeing. We are happy for many things in our life, when work is
going well, when get to see friends and family, when we finally get something
we wanted, when our favorite team wins the big game, etc. The problem is that
this happiness is fleeting. It’s a feeling that can easily be swept away when
circumstances don’t go our way. Notice in the definition is says “in a state of
wellbeing”. Happiness dies when bad things happen, when we lose our job, are
hurt by family or friends, receive that devastating diagnosis, or are just
simply having a bad day.
But,
true joy exists in a relationship with the Lord. In Him joy is not easily lost
because He is joy. The Psalmist writes “…to
God my exceeding joy…” God is our exceeding joy. Exceeding is defined as
far beyond what is usual in magnitude or degree. Therefore our Father IS joy,
far beyond what can be fathomed or explained. It is joy that can only be felt
or experienced. Joy that gets us through the ups and downs in life, it is a joy
that enables us to endure the trials of life. It is difficult to have joy in
difficult circumstances, our instincts are to blame God or blame someone for
our hardship, but we are commanded to have joy. James 1:2 says “Count it all joy, my brothers when you meet
trials of various kinds.” Why do we need to count it all joy? We need to
because the end result is the strengthening of our faith. We can have joy
because we have the Lord and He is our joy.
Not
only that but the fullness of joy is in Him. In His presence there is fullness
of joy. When we come into his presence we can be filled with joy. We can fill
up on the joy that he offers. I am one of those that don’t fill my gas tank
until it is empty, and then I fill it up and drive another few hundred miles
and repeat the process. Filling up on joy is like filling your gas tank, except
we need to make a continual effort of it. Imagine that you stopped at every gas
station you passed to top off your tank. You would never run out of gas and it
might even be overflowing. We need to continually top off our tank of joy from
the Lord because he has an abundant supply of it.
Heavenly Father,
I pray that you will help me to
realize that You are my joy. In You there is exceeding fullness of joy and I
need to top off my tank continuously so that I can be filled and overflowing
with it. Give me joy to endure the hardships in life, and may I have joy
through trials so I come out strengthened in my faith. Amen!
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