By the Way! Did you Say Joy? (Luke 2:10) (Psalm 16:11) (John 15:11)

 

By the way! Did you say JOY?

I got this answer from the site "gotquestions.org":  "The joy of the Lord is the gladness of heart that comes from knowing God, abiding in Christ, and being filled with the Holy Spirit.  When Jesus was born, the angels announced "good tidings of great joy" (Luke 2:10)

The definition of the Merriam dictionary is:

The emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one desire: DELIGHT

The question, though, it is not whether we believe that we can have joy during this Christmas, but rather which joy to have?

That's right! There are two joys we can choose to have: The temporary one (depends on us) or the one that depends on God.

Have you ever worked at being joyful?  I have, it's awkward, I tell you!

But in Psalm 16:11: David said "...in your presence there is fullness of joy"

Jesus said: "These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full." (John 15:11)

Therefore, God's joy is more than just an emotion produced by self with a bottle of wine or food...No, no, no!!! It's way better than that.  It comes through his everlasting Presence and we can re-live that joy they had at Christmas time on that first Christmas when the King of kings was born and how much does that really mean to you?

The world really looks to the Christian Church for real joy and we truly have it if we believe.  According to the verses above, we have to believe in Jesus's words and in God's Presence.  These two are eternal.  So if you know the Lord, you have joy.  You just have to believe those two things and joy will come as a result.  Meditate on the Word of God!

However, the world can only produce an imitation of the feeling of joy through different methods.  Well world, all I can say, it's keep trying!  By your own means you will never get the real joy God talks about in his Word.

In conclusion, real joy is not produced by anything we do (our works) but by who we are this Christmas and all year-round.  Be joyful to the world!

...Since joy is not depending on your feelings.  Make the decision to be joy-full now, regardless of favourable  situations or not.

Have a joyful Christmas...God is watching!