i've got the joy, joy, joy- down in my heart

I was listening to my iPod as I was cleaning this week, and while on "shuffle songs" an old favorite by Bethany Dillon came on called "hallelujah". The chorus stuck with my for a while- she sings, "whatever's in front of me, help me to sing hallelujah. Whatever's in front of me, I choose to sing hallelujah."

Hallelujah- a shout of joy or praise. Can God help us shout for joy? Can we possibly choose that? John 15:9-11 says "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete." With the joy of Christ in us we can have joy. Because there is a joy rooted in us from Christ- whatever is in front of us, we can sing hallelujah. Whatever- that means when things seem great and when things seem not so great.

I think happiness is an emotion. It is a feeling we get, or don't get, based on our circumstances. We may wake up and feel well rested and be excited about the day ahead and therefore feel happy. We may get a great gift from someone and it makes us happy. We get an unexpected day off from work or school and feel happy. But joy, is much different. When it seems like we are going through a rough period in life, or something really difficult has happened in our day and we feel like we are only dredging through the hours we probably don't feel so happy. If that gift that someone gave us (which once made us happy) is taken away or broken we probably don't feel happy about it.

But if our joy is rooted in Christ, if we obey his commands and remain in his love, like the Bible says in John 15, then our joy can still be made complete. Because earthly things, even people, do not define us or complete us- Christ does. We find our joy in him. If we look at John 15:4 we see Jesus says "Remain in me and I will remain in you". As we believe that he remains in us, we can also know that we have joy. It may not always be easy- but we can choose to sing hallelujah because of the promise Christ made to us- that in him, our joy is made complete.

Believe me, I know the world will throw some difficult, troublesome things our way. That, we can be sure of. "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." John 16:33- But we have a savior who has overcome those things completely and he is where we can find our joy! Sounds pretty legit to me.

Psalm 4:7-8 says "You have given me greater joy than those who have abundant harvests. I will lie down in peace and sleep, for you alone, O Lord, will keep me safe." Joy may not always look how we think it should. I feel like I should write that again- Joy may not always look how we think it should. (I think that is often because we confuse joy with a feeling, like happiness). We may think those who have the most, who have everything ("those who have abundant harvests" as the Bible puts it) would have great joy. But the writer of this Psalm says God gives him greater joy than those who have "everything". He says, " I will lie down in peace and sleep, for you alone, O Lord, will keep me safe". He knows God has his back- and that gives him great joy!

God's got your back. Remain in his love. Obey his commands. And his joy will be in us!


posted by: Tara