I got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart...Or have I?

Good Morning,

What's everybody doing today? Are you happy? If you aren't happy, do you have joy? I think we all have experienced something going on that is not happy yet joy is still flowing. At least that is what will happen if we are walking, obeying, living a life pleasing to the Lord. We can sure clog the flow though.

I told you we would look at the trait of the Lord's Joy in this devotion. I want to take one fruit of the Holy Spirit in the next 7 devotions. We have looked at Love. Today is Joy.

I told a friend the other day, "I am always amazed how the flesh will choose to jump in a muddy, deep, dark pit over a sparkling, pure, living river." No matter what 'it' appears to be, if it is gratifying the flesh even for the moment at hand, it is the slimy, muddy, water we've chosen. Though it satisfies for the moment, it will drown you eventually.

The fruit of Joy is fruit of the Spirit. It is not your spirit the Joy comes from. It is the Holy Spirit. So guess what we loose when we are gratifying our flesh and not walking with the Lord.
With the imperfections of our own fallen nature, and then you combine that with how people react differently to adversity – some Christians have literally had most, if not all of their joy in the Lord, knocked right out of them.

Here are some of the different definitions of what real joy is all about:

* Great delight; gladness of heart
* The happy state that results from knowing and serving God
* That deep, abiding, inner rejoicing in the Lord
* To rejoice, to be glad
* Happy, joyful, cheerful, rejoicing, festive

Realize that God can transmit this divine quality right up into your personality – and this will be His joy, not your joy, once it starts to flow up into you. And once God starts to release His joy into your system, you won’t be able to help but feel it. And once you are able to start feeling it again, it will become much easier for you to learn how to walk back in it in your own daily walk with the Lord.

I think it is important to remember feelings are not always telling the truth. I'm claiming that the Lord is my Joy whether I'm feeling it or not. If we do not feel his joy, it is not because He has left. He tells the truth and that is what we have to believe over feelings. Maybe He is telling us we need to check out our walk and see what dams we have built to keep His fruit from flowing all through our personality.

So when we are missing our Joy, we are missing our Lord. And He is missing you and me more than we can ever realize.

Have a wonderful, blessed, joyful day,

Mom/Meme/Linda
Galatians 5