who brings us joy?

"Reverential fear of God, mixed with love and 

and astonishment and adoration,  is the 

most enjoyable state and the most purifying

emotion the human soul can know" (A.W. Tozer)

~~~~~~~

Isn't it awesome to realize that we can enjoy our God?  That is what He intends for us to do! We can enter into a state of enjoyment with Him at any given time in our lives. He desires for us to derive much joy from even the notion of who He is. Just the very mention of His name should fill us with JOY. Just the realization of who He is in the life of a Christian should fill us to overflowing with unspeakable JOY. 

"Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD...." (Isaiah 58:14)

The scriptures tell us to delight ourselves in the LORD! Because the truth is, no human being will ever be able to cause that kind of JOY in our spirits. No human being can ever be to us what God is. We absolutely can not delight in people. People will always let us down. It doesn't matter if it is your spouse or your children or your parents or even your very best friend. At some point in your life all of those will let you down at least one time. It's just the nature of who we are. We are sinful, selfish, prideful, arrogant and spiteful people. And we will disappoint people and we will let them down. 

But God will never let you down. Not one single time. Not ever. He may not always give us everything that we want, but He always supplies all of our needs. He may not answer our prayers the way we want Him to, but He always answers them according to His divine will for our lives. And when that will doesn't match up with our desire, it doesn't mean that He has let us down. It just means that He is protecting us from something that we can't see. It means that He is paving the way to take us on a different journey. A better journey. One that will cause us to delight in Him and be filled with JOY. 

True joy doesn't come from people. It doesn't come from circumstances. It doesn't come from the accumulation of things. True JOY only comes from a personal relationship with Christ. When we keep our focus on God and the things that are spiritual and eternal and kingdom-minded, we will have that inexpressible JOY that comes from walking in the will of God. That contagious JOY that impact those around us. The JOY that is only possible from being in an intimate relationship with Jesus. True JOY comes from the sweet and pure love that God lavishes on His children!

"Behold, what manner of love the Father hath

 bestowed upon us, that we should be

 called the sons of God..." (1 John 3:1)

Our eyes must be gazing upon our God in sheer adoration. And astonishment. And fascination at the depth of His lavish love upon us. We must know deep down in our hearts that He is truly the only one who can satisfy us completely and love us unconditionally. When we know that and accept that then we won't be caught off guard when people fail us time after time. And because we are prepared for that to happen, it won't completely devastate our hearts and our spirits. 

Our reason for living is to do the will of God. Our purpose in life is to bring glory and honor to God in all that we say and do. Our lives are all about Jesus. The One who will always be on our side. The One who will always walk beside us. The One who will never let us down. 

And when we truly get that, the mixture of our reverential fear of God and our astonished adoration of Him,  will produce that most enjoyable state of purifying JOY and overwhelming LOVE reserved only for our Creator. Our true JOY only comes from our personal and intimate relationship with our Savior and our LORD.  

Dig deep into the scriptures. Seek His face daily. Fall on your face and cry out to Him in prayer on a regular basis. He will hear the cry of your heart and He will manifest Himself to you and become the JOY that you yearn for in your life. He will become your everything and will satisfy that deep longing in your soul.

"What's taken from us is often painful.

But God can take what is left and make

it powerful" (J. Franklin)