Joy

ALOHA FAMILY AND FRIENDS, Beloved of the LORD, John 3:16, 12:24-26, 17:20-26 and Eph.4:11-16

JOY ! “WORTH CONSIDERING” 2/22/19 (Across my desk this morning with lots of other stuff.)

Today’s Scripture
“Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it…”
(Genesis 1:28, NLT)

Too Busy For Joy
Are you missing out on the joys of life because you are too busy? God called you to be fruitful; He never called you to be busy. Don’t get activity mixed up with productivity. Just because you are on the go and always doing things doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re fulfilling God’s best plan for your life. All work and no play is not healthy. Ask the Lord to show you which areas need to be cut back and which areas need more focus. Ask Him to show you which relationships to let go of and which relationships to develop in your life. Stop allowing the unproductive areas of your life to consume all of your time, focus, and energy. As you make adjustments to bring balance to your schedule, you will have room for the activities and relationships that bring you joy and peace.

A Prayer for Today
“God, order my steps today. Help me to prioritize and to focus on those things that honor You and fulfill Your plan for my life. There may be relationships, commitments, and activities that I have to let go of; give me the courage to do so. I want to slow down, restore balance, and experience more joy in my life!”

My Comments:
First off, what comes to mind is “JOY” is different strokes for different folks. For the younger it is one thing, in middle age another and at my age it is having time with my grand kits and great grand kids and perhaps borrowing some one’s dog for a few moments of chase the ball which is temporal joy. But for me at 86, GOD’S JOY it is in seeing some soul find the light of GOD for their life FOR ETERNITY.

The Word of God gives me Joy, I love the verse in 1 Tim. 1:6-8:
“6 Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands. 7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”

That promise of God gives me a great amount of Joy and Peace. But it is amazing how many addictions there are in this world that totally lie about giving us really deep down JOY… The Good Book teaches that His Joy is strength, Neh. 8:10. Paul teaches it is a fruit of the Spirit, Gal. 5:22. Jesus taught that Joy was heavenly when a sinner repents, Luke 15:10. and that the WORD of God would fill us with JOY, John 15:11. In fact HE also taught that in faith our prayers being answered would give us JOY. John 17:13. The disciples were filled with JOY with the Holy Spirit, Acts 13:52 And Paul taught that righteousness, peace and Joy came through the Holy Spirit. And so on with Bible Gateway under JOY…. Take a look at joy in the whole Bible.

The difficult part is to let go of the worldly crutches in faith, the worldly things that we have learned to depend upon, the expensive lying addictions. So if you are not free in an area of your life, it cancels out God’s JOY. There may be some laughs but the bill still comes in the morning. There is a long list of stuff that we think are our friends but rob us of GOD’s JOY… FEAR would be a good start. Make your own list and ask HIS help to be free. The Word of God states that we are complete in HIM, Col. 2:10. And Jesus said that HIS TRUTH would set us free, John 8:21.

Yours, in HIS great love and wonderful grace and mercy, Ken<><