Joy

I never realized the difference with joy and happiness until a couple weeks ago when I began to study the different fruits of the spirit (Galatians 5:22). The thing is that joy is not letting the circumstances around you determine your attitude. Joy is remembering the price God paid on the cross and letting that excitement over flow into every aspect of your life.  Philemon 1:7 says, "Your love has given me great joy and encouragement". Also after reading about Joy and how it differs from happiness I was reminded about the verse, John 16:33, "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." I find it so reassuring that God has overcome the world and all of it's problems. When truly considering how much control God has and how incomparable this world is to his power it helps me realize how irrelevant all my worries are in the eyes of God. How can I complain and worry and fret about things that God has overcome? I am trying to learn to overcome this problem of getting wrapped up in worldly fears and worries and replacing them with the joy that God gives me. I have learned though that joy isn't something you can just say you have and thats that, it takes time and lots of prayer and I am not quite there yet, but I am working on it day by day to overcome my attitude with joy. I hope you all are encouraged to do the same.

Much Love,

MLH