Joyful

What better time to think of being Joyful than at Christmas time.

In Sunday School one Sunday the idea ,was mentioned ,that Joy was something altogether different from being happy or happiness. It started me thinking of the differences between being happy and being Joyful.

How to gain, how to keep, how to recover happiness is in fact for most people the secret motive of all they do. You cannot find happiness once and expect to own it for a lifetime. You have to keep working at it.

But bringing happiness to others brings an unexpected happiness to yourself for some of it rubs off on you.

"The secret of happiness is not in doing what one likes but in liking what one has to do. " Dyer.

Norman Vincent Peale :“Keep you heart free from hate, your mind from worry,
Live simple, expect little, give much,
Fill your life with love, scatter sunshine,
Forget self, think of others."

But to be really happy, you have to walk with God. If you don’t, you may often walk alone
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The world offers “passing pleasures” (Hebrews 11:25), but the Lord Jesus offers to give us full and lasting JOY (John 15:11). Happiness is dependent on circumstances, but JOY is inward and is not disturbed by one’s environment.

Happiness is always changing, but JOY is constant! Worldly delight are often followed by depression. True JOY is grounded in Jesus Christ, who is “the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8)

To keep experiencing happiness we must run from one stimulus to another, for it refuses to be permanently grasped. JOY is just the opposite. It is a gift we receive from God.

Happiness is built on self-seeking, but JOY is based on self-sacrifice. The more we pursue self-gratification, the more empty we feel. JOY, however, is based on the sacrificial giving of ourselves. As we learn what it means to focus on the needs of others, we find greater fulfillment in God Himself, who meets our every need.

Only when you seek the things of Christ can you find abiding JOY.

JOY
I searched for happiness
It eluded me, I must confess
Until I counted my blessings.
Now my heart & soul sings
For its Joy I found and then I knew
Its only things that Christ can do.
Wilhelmine