Yesterday my kids and I played out in the snow. So much fun. We laughed, rolled around in the snow, giggled, and just enjoyed ourselves. Then for a moment I just laid in the snow and listened. I listened to the joy that rang out in my yard. While I laid still in the snow my children screamed and laughed...not just any laugh but that hearty belly laugh...so much so that I caught it and was laughing along with them. Then I realized joy is like that too---it gets passed along to others. It's contagious! Infectious. It causes outbreaks of hope and delirious laughter, resulting in unexplainable peace. Joy is caught from those who already have it, and then you expose others to it, whether you really intend to or not. It spreads like a wild fire! And it can't be stopped easily. Even if you infect joy with life's troubles it won't eliminate joy. Pain and sorrow won't eradicate it. Even large doses of grief only hide it or mask the symptoms of joy temporarily. Soon joy breaks out again..."Weeping may last for a night but joy comes in the morning" Psalm 30:5.
Now joy is not like the game of "telephone" remember that game? You and a group of friends would form a circle and one would whisper to the other a sentence...lets say "She sells seashells by the seashore" then it would travel from person to person then finally the last person would reveal the finial outcome "Sally stole some shoes at the shoe store" Yikes that not what joy is like. It doesn't become weaker or distorted when passed along. It only gets better and stronger when it is true joy. To keep it alive you need to feed it. Now you can't just feed it anything you have to feed it truth, hope, and life which can all be found in one place the Bible and it will continue to overtake you and trust me you want it to.
"Being with you , God will fill me with Joy" Psalm 16:11
"Your statutes are my heritage forever; they are the joy of my heart" Psalm 119:111
The followers were filled with joy" Acts 13:52
"Ask and you will receive, so that your joy will be the fullest possible joy" John 16:24
"No one can take away your joy" John 16:22
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