The Source Of Joy

"Oh Lord, You are the light of my life. You illiminate my path, and I will follow wherever You lead. Protect me from being blinded by the light that confuses. Help me to always identify the counterfeit. I depend on You to lift up the light of Your countenance upon me like what You said in Psalms 4:6. Thank You, Lord, that because You never change, Your light is constant in my life no matter what is going on around me. Shine Your light through me as I walk with my hand in Yours. I give this day to You and trust that the light You give me is just the amount I need for the step I'm on. Amen."

JOY:
We find that our joy is greatly affected by circumstances. When everything goes smoothly, we radiate a joyful spirit. But what happens when everything goes wrong, when our world seems to fall apart around us? Our joy seems to "fly out of the window".

The source of true joy is the Lord himself. There is a difference between the joy that comes from peaceful circumstances and the joy of the Lord which is constant and enduring day after day regardless of the circumstances about us.

We most probably are familiar with the 9 fruits of the Spirit: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." (Gal 5:22-23). Let's illustrate this in the following way to understand it better. A flower has a number of petals, and each petal is an essential part of the complete flower. Joy is one of the "petals" in the fruit of the Spirit, and without it we are not complete Christians.

The joy of the Lord transforms us and gives a cheerfulness and joyousness that is not dependent upon our outward circumstances but comes from the presence of Christ in our hearts. It has been aptly sai, "Joy is the flag which is flown from the castle of the heart when the King is in residence there." Amen.

-Prov 4:18 "The path of the just is like the shining sun, that shines ever brighter unto the perfect day."