Choosing Joy in Hard Times

The Joy of the Lord is my Strength In May I saw Rend Collective play live at BCDO. Their song 'Joy Of The Lord' has been a favourite song of mine for a while now but hearing it in real life with thousands of people singing it around you really makes you think about the song and the message it is trying to give. Since that moment, it's been stuck in my head (not complaining) and I just wanted to give my humble thoughts about the joy that the Lord gives us. The lyrics that have stuck with me the most recently are: 'The joy of the Lord is my strength The joy of the Lord is my strength In the darkness I'll dance In the shadows I'll sing The joy of the Lord is my strength' 'Though tears may fall My song will rise, my song will rise to You Though my heart may fail My song will rise, my song will rise to You' 'When sorrow comes my way You are the shield around me' The Oxford dictionary definition of joy is 'A feeling of great pleasure and happiness'. The Greek word for joy is 'Chara' which means joy, gladness, a source of joy. The Hebrew word for joy is 'Simchah' which in short definition means joy but it originates from 'Samach', I believe, which means joy, goodness, mirth, exceedingly, gladness, joyfulness, pleasure, rejoicing. So as you can see, joy can be explained and defined in many ways. Joy is is found more than 150 times in scripture but here are just a few verses that contain the word joy: 'You will show me the path of life; In your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.' - Psalm 16 v 11 'For His anger is but for a moment, His favour is for life; Weeping may endure for a night, But joy comes in the morning.' - Psalm 30 v 5 'My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.' - James 1 v 2-4 'Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands! Serve the Lord with gladness; Come before His presence with singing.' - Psalm 100 v 1-2 Joy isn't something we should only have or feel when we're happy or when life is going well for us. True and honest joy should still exist in our lives regardless of the circumstances and the craziness in our lives. Hard times will come along and us Christians aren't spared from these hard times. We're humans just like the rest of the world and we go through things which make life tough too BUT we do have a joy that comes from God that helps us through these times where there seems like there's no light at the end of the tunnel. Joy gives us the ability to enjoy everything that we are blessed with. This is anything from amazing family, good health, a job that makes you happy, your salvation, a loving marriage to just simply having enough food to eat. Joy from God also gives us the strength to get through the bad patches in our life and without it we would struggle so badly. These are the times when you need God the most. We need Him when we're happy too, but especially in these times and we have to pursue Him and joy walks hand in hand with pursuing God. We might not feel like doing it but it is the most important thing to do when you don't know what to do or how you can come back from something that has stripped the happiness from our lives. Choose joy! 'And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God...' - Romans 8 v 28

ALICIALOUISE x

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