More wisdom from Brenda Smith
Hello All!
Last week's word was Comfort. So if you are
comforted (you know the Comforter has come) then riding on the heels is
JOY. Comfort and Joy!!!
Today's
Word is JOY. Joy is defined as a deep feeling or condition of
happiness or contentment. To make joyful; gladden. An outward show of
pleasure or delight; rejoicing. Now to contrast happiness: pleasure,
bliss, delight, enjoyment. Happiness is the result or possession of
attaining what one considers good. Happiness is depending on an outward
source to make you happy. Joy is what is on the inside that bubbles over
with delight. You just cannot contain joy.
"These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full." John 15:11
Joy is the brithright of the child of God. Every
child ought to have a conscious, conspicuous, continuous, and
contagious joy. If you are not living a life of joy, you are living
beneath your privileges as a Christian. Your source of joy is Jesus.
Jesus wants to place joy in your lives. Yes, he is the Man of Sorrows,
but there was a genuine joy in Jesus, and if you do not have that you
are not demonstrating one of His characteristics. Let's think of it
as the Three "S" Joy Principle.
The STABILITY of Joy. Jesus not only wants you
to find His joy. He wants you to keep it. This is not a joy that comes
and goes. Philippians 4:4 says, "Rejoice in the Lord always; and again I
say, Rejoice." Whenever you see "Re" on a word it tells you it is a
prefix, meaning again. You had joy before. You know what it means to be
joyful. So, Jesus wants you to remember again what it feels like to
have joy and to keep it! Even when the tears are coursing down your
cheeks, and when your heart is breaking, you feel as if you are not
going to make it, there should be something deep on the inside of you
that will give you Joy. That Joy is Jesus. If you get your joy from
amusement; when you can no longer be amused, your joy is gone. Jesus is
always there, and that is why your joy remains. He is your stabilizer
in this world of chaos and instability.
The SUFFICIENCY of Joy. The joy of the Lord is
enough. Just like He tells us in His word that His grace is sufficient.
His Joy is all you will need to live in this world. Paul prayed three
times asking the Lord to remove his thorn. Jesus told him in 2
Corinthians 12:9 "My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is
made perfect in weakness." I am not going to remove the thorn, but the
grace I give you will be sufficient to stabilize and strengthen you. It
will hold you up and it will not allow you to fall. But, if you do fall,
you will be able to Rise again.
The SECRET of Joy. Even though joy is available
to us, not every Christian has joy. You can be a Christian and still be
miserable. As a matter of fact, the most miserable man on Earth is not
an unsaved man but is a saved man out of fellowship with God. David,
after he had committed sin, prayed in Psalm 51:12, "Restore unto me the
joy of Thy salvation." He had not lost his salvation, but he had lost
the joy of it. The secret of joy is found in John 15:5 "I am the vine,
ye are the branches: He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same
bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me you can do nothing." A branch
is absolutely dependent upon a vine. The vine sustains the branch and
provides everything needed. The branch never has to worry about its
provisions. All God asks of that branch is to abide on the vine. What
we do on our own has no eternal value. The value comes when we abide on
the vine and stay
nourished and fed the wonderful Word of God. Do as the Word says. The
branch must surrender to the vine in order to be useful. It is the vine
that produces the grapes - Fruit of the Spirit - which includes JOY! In
order for there to be dependence and restfulness, there must be total
surrender.
We sing a song in Church...This joy that I have
the world didn't give it to me. The world didn't give it and the world
can't take it away! This is the Jesus Joy that lives in you. God is
good to us. He is mercifcul and He is faithful. This joy is not for
future happiness. This Joy is for NOW. If you are suffering right now,
the joy comes in knowing...This too shall pass. "...Weeping may endure
for a night, but JOY cometh in the morning! -Psalm 30:5.
This may also be expressed this way: "At
nightfall weeping comes as a guest to tarry; but in the morning Joy
comes to stay." This may mean that sorrow goes and gladness comes; or
that the morning the grief of the previous evening is changed into joy.
The Master's Joy!
Ooooh Joy!
Down in my soul!!!
God bless you is my prayer.
Brenda Smith
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