Joy

Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice. Philippians 4:4.....Joy is the serious business of heaven. C.S. Lewis His word tells us that we're to be joyful in all circumstances. I think, if we'll admit to it, that we wonder how that can be possible? Maybe it's so difficult because we don't understand just what His joy is. We equate it with happiness. Happiness depends upon what is happening. Joy is a condition of the heart, and the heart is where His Son abides through His Holy Spirit. Joy is not at root a feeling, it's a state of being. Happiness is an emotion affected by our circumstances. It can evaporate quickly, but if His joy is our strength, then we live in an endless hope and well-being that no outward conditions can diminish. The best example of this that I can think of is with something a woman said to me many years ago. She was in a miserable marriage and family situation. Trouble seemed to afflict her and her family in seemingly endless ways. Like Paul, she admitted that there were times she was tempted to even "despair as to her life." Yet, she said that in such times, she would remember that she was saved, she was His, and her focus was not on the present but on His promise to her of eternity with Him. She knew that was real, more real than her present situation. She could rejoice in that because she knew her pain, severe as it was, was a passing pain. She would rejoice not only in her future hope, but her present one in Christ. She was not alone. She was not left comfortless. That which sought to crush her would not because of the inward power she had in Him. She rejoiced in her present and future victory over all of it. That is joy. The fruit of a settled and deep knowing and experiencing of Him that nothing could defeat. Maybe today you too are confusing His joy with your happiness. Happiness is fleeting when all you can see is what is around you. Joy comes from looking both inwardly to who is with you, and upwardly to who is always watching you and moving on your behalf. That is how you experience the joy of the Lord as your strength. That is how you rejoice always. So, rejoice always. Again I say, rejoice! Blessings, Pastor O