Day 10: Joy

Do you experience true joy at the heart level? The kind of joy that radiates from your soul despite your circumstances? Some days joy is easy to come by! I am always joyful when my husband gets a promotion, when we celebrate birthdays, when my kids spontaneously love on me or kiss me, when I'm on vacation, when money isn't tight etc. But joyful emotion is more difficult to muster when times are tough - when we experienced job loss, when my grandfather passed away, when my husband is out of town, when my kids are disobedient...But we CAN experience GREAT joy in any circumstance - because regardless of what we have, or what we "lack", our Lord has been exceedingly generous in offering an eternity of fellowship in His presence. Where does a joyful soul come from? It comes from confidence in the great hope that we share as heirs of God and co-heirs of Christ. My greatest joy is because of the great hope I have. Jesus is greater than my circumstances! When we radiate joy through the struggles, we illuminate Jesus and the Gospel. I want to walk this life joyfully, pointing others to my true and eternal source of great joy! For me, great joy is great hope - I pray that my boys experience this same JOY!

These scriptures are shaping my joy filled heart:

Isaiah 61:10-11

New International Version (NIV)

¹⁰ I delight greatly in the LORD;
my soul rejoices in my God.
For he has clothed me with garments of salvation
and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness,
as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest,
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
¹¹ For as the soil makes the sprout come up
and a garden causes seeds to grow,
so the Sovereign LORD will make righteousness
and praise spring up before all nations.

Isaiah 65:17-25

New International Version (NIV)

¹⁷ “See, I will create
new heavens and a new earth.
The former things will not be remembered,
nor will they come to mind.
¹⁸ But be glad and rejoice forever
in what I will create,
for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight
and its people a joy.
¹⁹ I will rejoice over Jerusalem
and take delight in my people;
the sound of weeping and of crying
will be heard in it no more.

²⁰ “Never again will there be in it
an infant who lives but a few days,
or an old man who does not live out his years;
the one who dies at a hundred
will be thought a mere child;
the one who fails to reach a hundred
will be considered accursed.
²¹ They will build houses and dwell in them;
they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
²² No longer will they build houses and others live in them,
or plant and others eat.
For as the days of a tree,
so will be the days of my people;
my chosen ones will long enjoy
the work of their hands.
²³ They will not labor in vain,
nor will they bear children doomed to misfortune;
for they will be a people blessed by the LORD,
they and their descendants with them.
²⁴ Before they call I will answer;
while they are still speaking I will hear.
²⁵ The wolf and the lamb will feed together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox,
and dust will be the serpent’s food.
They will neither harm nor destroy
on all my holy mountain,”
says the LORD.

Hebrews 6:19-20

New International Version (NIV)

¹⁹ We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, ²⁰where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.