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Joy, a Mighty Force
Joy. It really is a mighty force. Although in a dictionary the words joy and happiness are descriptions for each other, they are not the same. We can be happy and not have joy. We can have joy and not be happy.
I love the Hebrew language because it is so very descriptive. In it you can see and feel all the many kinds of joy there are to experience. It is quiet. It is loud. It is physical. It dances crazy. It shouts. It sings.
The Lord, your God, in the midst of you is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over you with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over you with singing... Zephaniah 3:17.
It is all these things all at one time. And it can be all these things to you while your heart is breaking. There is nothing happy about that.But joy is indeed a mighty force within the heart that transcends circumstances. Joy can go beyond and step right over those things that work havoc in our lives.
I will take joy over happy any day. Oh, I like happy. Happy is fun. But joy—joy runs deep into and out of the soul, the core of the being. Happy comes and goes with the wind. Joy is like an oil that burns and the wind can’t touch it.
In my life joy has proven itself.
God called me to joy.
He called me to Himself. It is from Him that the joy comes. It is while I commune with him over His Word that He infuses His joy into my heart. And with the joy is strength to live in the middle of those things that rob happiness.
Many times people will think I have no cares in the world. They are clueless to the grace and trust I must walk in, in order to get out of my car and function in society. And why do they not see? Because of my joy.
God calls you to joy.
Many believe that Proverbs 8 is speaking about Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah, Son of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. In this scripture, verses 30 and 31 he says this about himself, “Then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him; rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men”.
I believe joy is a mandate from the heart of God.