| Note: This post is linked to Spiritual Sundays (hosted by Charlotte). |  |
Last Night's Christmas Service
9 hours ago
Friday, March 1, 2013
Joy
"Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer." (Romans 12:12, NIV)
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Visiting from Spiritual Sundays. These are good words to hold in mind: joy, hope, patience, faith and prayer.
Have a blessed weekend!
There is an intimate relationship between joy and hope. But be joyful in hope is very different from the naive optimism. Optimism is a behavior that assures us that things will get better tomorrow. The optimist says that the war will end, wounds heal, depression stop, epidemic will be repressed. Soon, everything will be better. Optimists can be right or wrong, but in any case do not control the situation. While optimism tells us that the day will soon come when everything will be better, hope liberates us from the need to predict the future and allows us to live in the present, with full confidence that God will not leave us alone. He will fulfill the deepest desires of our hearts.
Joy is the fruit of hope. When we have a deep confidence that God is truly with us and keeps us safe in His divine hand, we can get rid of the concerned need to know what will happen tomorrow or what will happen next month or next year. We can totally be where we are and be careful of the many signs of God's love in us and around us. We humans often speak "about the good old times." But when we think about them critically, and leaving aside our memories full of romance, we discover very quickly that at that time we were greatly concerned about our future.
If I deeply believe that today is the Day of the Lord, and tomorrow is firmly hidden in God's love, my face can relax and hope for the One who is my hope. Joy is contagious as well as pain. Joyful man, and that is as I see you, MTJ, radiates joy. It’s not because his life is easy, but because he recognizes the presence of God in every human suffering, his own or that of others. Joyful man, wherever he goes, whoever he meets, is able to see and hear something positive, something for which he is grateful. Joyful man does not deny the great suffering that surrounds him. He is not blind or deaf to the voices of anxiety and groans of other human beings, but his spirit tends toward the light in the darkness, toward prayer among cries of disappointment. The joyful man is not sentimental. He is realistic. His deep faith allows him to hope. His hope is more stable than disappointment. His faith is more real than mistrust. His love is stronger than fear. It is a spiritual realism that makes him such a joyful man. We can try to astonish him by the utter depression of the human race. But in his good and compassionate eyes nothing changes. He sees the reality of the world. Primarily, he sees the good and lives of it..
Joyful people continue to talk about beauty, good, justice and truth, even if they walk in the midst of darkness. They are the herald of hope. They are truly saints of our time. Such people give us a new courage to live our own lives.
I choose joy! Always. It may take me getting on my knees and crying out to God, but I want my heart to be full of joy. Jesus died for me--that alone should fill my heart with joy.
I choose joy! Always. It may take me getting on my knees and crying out to God, but I want my heart to be full of joy. Jesus died for me--that alone should fill my heart with joy.
I choose joy! Always. It may take me getting on my knees and crying out to God, but I want my heart to be full of joy. Jesus died for me--that alone should fill my heart with joy.
I choose joy! Always. It may take me getting on my knees and crying out to God, but I want my heart to be full of joy. Jesus died for me--that alone should fill my heart with joy.
I choose joy! Always. It may take me getting on my knees and crying out to God, but I want my heart to be full of joy. Jesus died for me--that alone should fill my heart with joy.
I choose joy! Always. It may take me getting on my knees and crying out to God, but I want my heart to be full of joy. Jesus died for me--that alone should fill my heart with joy.
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