I’m sorry to be a little late this week in posting; seems like the year already is taking off fast.  Some of you might be experiencing the same thing.  Life activities don’t always seem to slow down but rather to accelerate at times.

Anyway, the one word that keeps coming to mind is joy.  So with all that is happening, I thought I’d just write a short post on joy.  Not sure about you, but I learned a long time ago that joy is not dependent on what is happening in my life, but on the ONE who is at the center of my life-Jesus.  Philippians 4:4 says, “Rejoice in the Lord always; and again I say, rejoice”.  According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary rejoice means to feel joy or great delight. To rejoice means to do again and again and again. Joyfulness is not because of our emotions but comes from our attitude.  The feeling of being joyful then depends on our outlook on life and what, or should I say who, we are focusing on.

First Chronicles 16:10 teaches us, “Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice”.  To me this means that we gain great joy when we are in the presence of the Lord.  So perhaps our level of joy, whether a little or great, is determined by how much time we are spending with our Lord; how much we are focusing on Him.  To glory in the Lord means to give Him honor and praise.  It is a decision.  Nehemiah 8:10 tells us another of many benefits of spending time our Father God and that is our strength.

So let’s begin this year purposefully focusing on increasing our joy level.  Let’s be determined to make daily decisions to seek God with all our heart and soul, and allow the power of His very presence to fill us with strength and joyfulness.

1 Chronicles 16:10 Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice. 

Philippians 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, rejoice.