What is joy?
Is it happiness? Delight? Jubilation? Triumph or great pleasure? All of those?
None of those?
Joy sometimes seems to be…elusive, here today and gone tomorrow, an attitude of choice or maybe bi-product of circumstance. Attitudes, yes, they are a choice. But joy? Joy, goes deeper than an attitude. I’m not certain we choose joy, but rather
joy chooses us.
It’s not an emotion, and it doesn’t depend on our circumstances. True joy comes in the rhythms of walking in the cadence of God’s steps. If you’re desiring joy, live life in gratitude and trust His promises, praising God for who He is. He inhabits the praises of His people…He dwells in those praises. When we praise, He hovers and covers us…with joy.
In your presence is fullness of joy, in your right hand there are pleasures forever. Psalm 16:11
Clap your hands, all you nations; shout to God with cries of joy. For the Lord Most High is awesome, the great King over all the earth. Psalm 47:1-2
Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. Psalm 95:1-2
Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth, burst into jubilant song with music; make music to the Lord with the harp, with the harp and the sound of singing, with trumpets and the blast of the ram’s horn—shout for joy before the Lord, the King. Psalm 98:4-6
Live with love and practice praise. Go to the Psalms. In seeking deeper prayer and the presence of God, I started dwelling in the Psalms… those songs of worship in times of trouble and times of celebration. They’re all full of praise and adoration. They’re all full of His presence.
Joy will choose you and keep you in His glorious presence. Don’t run from it.