~Joy~

... In Your presence is fullness of joy; in Your right hand there are pleasures forever.
Psalm 16:11

A joyful heart is good medicine...
Proverbs 17:22

Not a lot to say tonight because I need to write a paper that is due on Monday. Only one more paper after this one for my 'Existence and Majesty of God' class. :) So this blog is my writing "warm up exercise" before I have to actually write super seriously, haha ugh :s

I decided to write a little bit about joy because we all need some more of it! There are many different kinds of joy. There is joy when you turn in all your homework on time, there is joy when you cook a really great meal, there is borrowed joy from a good movie, there is joy when you score the winning point(s) in an athletic competition, there is joy when you meet a new friend, there is joy when you marry your husband or wife, there is joy in buying your very first home/car etc..., there is joy when everything in your life is going perfect and even when it's not perfect you can usually find something to be joyful about... but these are all temporary joys...
what about those days when everythihg is going wrong, or you got a terrible grade on an assignment, or you burnt your dinner and started your stove on fire, where is your joy found when you are backed into a financial corner with no visible way out, or you feel like you have no friends, and you break your ankle on your way to your car and therefore cannot walk and have a huge medical bill? Where is the joy to be found on those horrible days?
For this, I will turn to Nehemiah 8:10 and Psalms 16:11 where they directly answer our question. They state "... Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength." and "... In Your presence is fullness of joy..."
Jesus so desires that we find our joy in Him and Him alone. He doesn't want our fascination with other, finite beings and things to get in our way of being fascinated with Him. Because when we are fascinated with Him, it won't matter what comes our way in this life because we will be able to find joy in Jesus Christ! And the joy in Jesus is eternal and can never be taken away!!

"This joy that I've found, the world can't take it away!!!"
IHOP-KC Worship Chorus