Thursday, February 13, 2014

Joy Of The World V.S. Joy Of The Lord


Psalm 126:5-6
New International Version (NIV)
Those who sow with tears
    will reap with songs of joy.
Those who go out weeping,
    carrying seed to sow,
will return with songs of joy,
    carrying sheaves with them.


The word ‘joy’ has such a specific connotation of extreme happiness, so much so that it is often used sarcastically because “who could really be full of joy?”.
noun
1.      1.
a feeling of great pleasure and happiness.
"tears of joy"
synonyms:
delight, great pleasure, joyfulness, jubilationtriumphexultation,rejoicinghappiness
gladness, gleeexhilarationexuberanceelation,euphoriablissecstasyraptureMore



However the joy of the Lord is not necessarily the kind of joy the world defines. Joy in the Lord is being able to stand in the midst of chaos and not be moved. To be able to smile when the enemy tries to knock you off course, but you push him back under your feet.


I use to think that joy was an emotion that I would filled with happiness, smiling all the time and having it easy in life for whatever period of time. I learned that this isn’t true, you can have joy and not be happy about your circumstances but have joy because you know that things get so much better because you are a child of God.


Remember to “count it all joy” even when things are “blah” or things look like it’s going “south”.




Don’t assume that just because someone is not jumping up and down, clicking their heels or smiling all the time, that they don’t have joy.

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