Hi There! Well, my week has been a busy one. Packing, purging, sorting, wrapping fragiles, etc. We will be moving over to our daughters house next weekend, so all of this will be over pretty soon. But Keevin and I have a little more time with our children before we leave.
Are you feeling more loved than you did before starting the 21 day journal note? I have found that writing journal notes for all the areas in my life that needed correcting helped me to find a nice balance and peace. So you may not feel all balanced out just yet but keep working at it. Ask the Lord to show you the next area of concern that He wishes for you to correct.
Today we will talk about joy. The meaning of joy is: the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one desires. Delight. Gaiety. A state of happiness. Enjoyment. Do you relate?
The opposite of joy is sadness, grief or unhappiness, depression, feeling worthless.. Do you relate?
Let's look at John 15: 10-11 (GWT): "If you obey my commandments, you will live in my love. I have obeyed my Father's commandments, and in that way I live in His love. I have told you this so that you will be as joyful as I am, and your joy will be complete." The end result is thorough, total, absolute joy. What does that type of joy feel like? We'll go back to last weeks blog where we talked about "love." Total joy is felt when we live in His love. His love. That is the basic ingredient to our joy. How do we live in His love? We obey His commandments. Remember Mark 12:30-31? "Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength. The second is this, love your neighbor as yourself." Did you ask Holy Dad to help you love Him the way He wants you to? If you didn't, then stop this very second and do it, sincerely.
I'd like to show you how Holy Dad is able to give you such great joy. Romans 15:13 (NCV) says: "I pray that the God who gives hope will fill you with much joy and peace while you trust in Him. Then your hope will overflow by the power of the Holy Spirit." Have you noticed that many of the confidence elements overlap each other and rely on each other? Trust in Him. Faith is #7 on the list (you can find it in Galatians 5: 22-23). Trust and faih are areas that you have to be willing to let go and let God. You have to actually let go and let God. Release your control. It may seem hard but you can talk yourself into it. Ask the Lord to help you in this area. What does this accomplish? Joy and peace and hope. Hope overflows because of the Holy Spirit. I like to call Him the Holy Wonder. What an incredible conduit. He flows His power right into us and gives us power. We are not in this life alone. We are super-naturally charged.
Friend, let's get out of the depressing slump and move on to joy. Let's be determined to get over our sadness that we have been wallowing in (self-pity) and replace it with Jesus' complete joy.
The right life path is this: Psalm 16:11 (NLT): "You will show me the ways of life, granting me the joy of Your presence and the pleasures of living with You, forever." And The Message relates it this way: "Now You've got my feet on the life path, all radiant from the shining of Your face. Ever since You took my hand, I'm on the right way." Have you felt God's presence since reading my blog? Or, maybe I should ask Have you felt God's presence since you have started loving Him with all your passion, prayer, intelligence and energy?
I'm not going to give you a journal note this week but I want you to continue your previous journaling.
Here's a confident booster: When talking to someone keep good eye contact and truly listen, nodding occasionally.
Holy Father, I ask you to help my readers to "get it". "To get You." Help them to want to give up control and allow You to empower them with all of Your love, joy and goodness. You are so great and awesome. Thank You for hearing my prayer and attending to it.
Friend, have a great weekend and find a good Bible-teaching church to worship our Holy Lord this Sunday.
Sisterly love to all, Wynndy
