The past two Sunday sermons have been addressing the JOY of the Lord. I think we all know there is a huge difference between joy and happiness with happiness being a temporary response to something and joy being a state of being. I’ve known this but I haven’t given too much thought to it until yesterday. All too often I will let present circumstances circumvent my state of being–JOY. I don’t take the circumstances to the depth for which JOY is found. I’ll let my emotions have their way with me. I won’t necessarily show them or express them to anyone, but I’ll definitely have them.

In my devotional today, the prayer at the closing reads in part: “…Just as You are three-in-one, I find all the parts of myself completely whole in you….” I have always wished for that to be true. If every part of me were whole I would have JOY. Reading this today led me to yesterday’s sermon and the critical importance of taking JOY to the depth of my belief system. Is my faith that confident? Well, it is for this moment and I’m going to work on keeping it there. I want to remind my emotions that my confidence is not found in them. My confidence is in the Righteous of Jesus Christ and what He has done for me and each one of us!