Joy

            Joy.  How hard can it be to have “joy”?  It doesn’t seem like it should be that hard to have joy, just a smile here, a laugh there… But really, even with smiles and laughter, you don’t necessarily have joy.  One of the fruits of the Spirit is “joy” (Gal. 5:22).  I believe you cannot have true joy without the Holy Spirit in your life.

            “…In Your presence there is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”  Psalm 16:11b ESV.

            There is a song with this verse in it.  I really like it; I’ll share it at the end of the post.  But what this verse is saying is that IN His presence… there is joy…  You have to be in His presence to enjoy joy.  When face-to-face with Him, you encounter fullness of joy.  It probably sounds like I’m being redundant, but it’s true.

           I can’t tell you the amount of times I have felt joy because I chose to be with Him.  God wants us to enjoy the joy in His presence, He wants to give us the pleasures at His right hand.  But we have be the ones to choose Him.  He already chose us before we were born, but we have to also choose Him.  It’s like marriage; you both have to choose each other before you can enjoy a relationship together.

           I will end with one of my favorite verses.  It was written by David.  He pours out his heart so many times in the Bible, and I know that he did it so much more in his secret place.  David chose to have a relationship with God, will you?

Here’s the one thing I crave from God, the one thing I seek above all else: I want the privilege of living with Him every moment in His house, finding the sweet loveliness of His face, filled with awe, delighting in His glory and grace. I want to live my life so close to Him that He takes pleasure in my every prayer.

Psalm 27:4 TPT