Many of us seek happiness and joy in the P's: people, parties, pints (liquor), puffs (smoking), pounds & pennies (money), passion (sex), Porches (cars)., photo shoots (external beauty) etc.
There is however a difference between happiness and joy.
Happiness is more circumstantial and momentarily. Happiness is a feeling we experience when we find ourselves in good circumstances, having a good time in a good place and at a good time.
JOY is more a CONFIDENCE IN WHO WE ARE. Joy is experienced when we are confident:
- of our identity, our unique calling and destiny and
- of being unconditionally loved, forgiven (if we repent and forgive others) and protected despite circumstance, place or time.
God's H.O.P.E. (Heaven On Planet Earth) JOY is experienced by those
who have received in Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit:
- the gift of faith (= to trust God)
- the gift of faith (= to trust God)
- the rebirth (born again) of God's nature in their spirit
- the revelation and knowledge that they are members of the wealthiest and most powerful royal family in the universe and that nothing can separate them from love of God. His Son and the Holy Spirit!!
'Jesus Christ,’ said Oswald Chambers, ‘does not come to a man and say, “Cheer up”. He plants within a man the miracle of the joy of God’s own nature.’ What a legacy!
Selwyn Hughers said 'How sad that many people have the idea that to receive Jesus Christ into one’s life is to be made miserable. The fact that there is a cross at the heart of our faith (our trust in and our relationship with God), and that following Christ involves self-discipline (and self-sacrifice), does not alter this central truth: TO KNOW JESUS IS TO KNOW JOY'
NO ONE HAS TRUE JOY:
- unless they have repented, received Jesus as their Lord and Saviour and know Him as their best Friend
- unless he or she lives in the knowledge that they are the target of God's love forgiveness, blessings and that His very life in us is the hope of glory
- unless they live in continuous thanksgiving for His love, forgiveness, blessings and life
- unless they know that they are a family member of the richest and most powerful royal family in the universe
- unless they are looking forward to:
- their God-given inheritance while they are still on earth
- their God-given inheritance of everlasting life after their physical death
- the return or second coming of Jesus, the Super Star of history, to earth to
completely realise His H.O.P.E. Dream (Heaven On Planet Earth) with His
Dream Teams. His Dream Teams will consist of the all the saints who have
lived before His physical return to earth and those who will still be alive on
earth on His second coming to earth.
WHEN YOU LOOK IN THE MIRROR and find that you lack the joy you desire we encourage you to remind yourself:
- that you are so dearly loved by Father God that He sent Jesus His Son, the Super Star of history, to deliver you from your sinful nature and to give you His JOYFUL and honest nature. Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit so that you and I can experience the Fruit of the Holy Spirit Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.
- that you have a choice to receive Jesus and the Holy Spirit into your life as your best joyful friends and enjoy a personal love and joyful relationship with Them.
Selwyn Hughes writes:
If we seek joy first it will elude us, but when we allow God’s love to abound in our hearts then we don’t have to seek joy; it will seek us. It is doubtless true to say that no human being on this planet has experienced joy as Jesus did. His heart, unsullied, was able to taste the joy of unclouded communion with God His Father, and that is the joy He wanted to impart to His disciples.
TO PERFECT LOVE and JOY IN US
John 15
9 “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. 10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My LOVE, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.
11 “These things I have spoken to you, that My JOY may remain in you, and that your JOY may be full. 12 This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. 14 You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have CALLED YOU FRIENDS, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. 17 These things I command you, that you love one another.
JOY IS SET BEFORE YOU DESPITE THE TRIALS & THE RACE of FAITH (TRUSTING GOD)
HEB 12
1 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the JOY that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
3 For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.
JOY in the True Vine John 15
1 “I AM the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.
2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away;[a] and every branch that bears fruit (love, JOY, peace, etc) He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
3 You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.
4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
IF
6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.
7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.
8 By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit (much love, much JOY, much peace, etc); so you will be My disciples.
IF YOU ARE STILL JOYLESS and DOWN CAST because you are still convicted that you are not abiding in the love and the law or commandments of the Lord and not bearing His fruit (love, JOY, peace, etc), God has the following to teach you:
Nehemiah 8:8-12 (NKJV)
8 So they read distinctly from the book, in the Law of God; and they gave the sense, and helped them to understand the reading.
9 And Nehemiah, who was the governor, Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, “This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn nor weep.” For all the people wept, when they heard the words of the Law.
10 Then he said to them, “Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow, for the JOY of the Lord is your strength.”
11 So the Levites quieted all the people, saying, “Be still, for the day is holy; do not be grieved.” 12 And all the people went their way to eat and drink, to send portions and rejoice greatly, because they understood the words that were declared to them.
A PRAYER FOR JOY, HOPE, LOVE FAITH Psalm 16:1-11 (NKJV)
The Hope of the Faithful, and the Messiah’s Victory
1 Preserve me, O God, for in You I put my trust.
2 O my soul, you have said to the Lord,
“You are my Lord,
My goodness is nothing apart from You.”
3 As for the saints who are on the earth,
“They are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight.”
4 Their sorrows shall be multiplied who hasten after another god;
Their drink offerings of blood I will not offer,
Nor take up their names on my lips.
5 O Lord, You are the portion of my inheritance and my cup;
You maintain my lot.
6 The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places;
Yes, I have a good inheritance.
7 I will bless the Lord who has given me counsel;
My heart also instructs me in the night seasons.
8 I have set the Lord always before me;
Because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved.
9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices;
My flesh also will rest in hope.
10 For You will not leave my soul in Sheol,
Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.
11 You will show me the path of life;
In Your presence is FULLNESS OF JOY;
At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
OUR WISH AND PRAYER FOR YOU
Romans 15
13. ‘May the God of hope fill you with ALL JOY and peace as you trust in him’
Rom 14
17 for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and JOY in the Holy Spirit. 18 For he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men.
Neh 8
10 Then he said to them, “Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow, for the JOY of the Lord is your strength.”