You are welcome to the February 2022 edition of El Shaddai Heritage!
Hope you are doing wonderfully well.
Our Focus for the month of February 2022 is Joy!
Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, you righteous: and shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart.” Ps. 32:10
The biblical definition of joy says that joy is a feeling of good pleasure and happiness that is dependent on who Jesus is rather than on who we are or what is happening around us. Joy comes from the Holy Spirit, abiding in God’s presence and from hope in His word
In Greek, the word for joy is ‘chara.’ This describes a feeling of inner gladness, delight, or rejoicing. This inner gladness leads to a cheerful heart and a cheerful heart leads to cheerful behavior.
God doesn’t want us to be miserable, depressed, sad, frustrated, unhappy; He wants us to have joy, and it’s based on an internal deal
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Joy is something that God gives you on the inside that keeps you going and alive.
The Bible teaches that as Christians we are to be joyful always; joy should be the prevailing characteristic in our lives.
Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice! Philippians 4:4
Be joyful always, 1 Thessalonians 5:16
God knows our sorrows, heartaches and fears and He calls us to rejoice anyway.
No matter what is happening or what we are facing on the outside, as a believer, God wants us to have the joy that only He can give, and it’s internal.
“Even though the fig trees have no fruit and no grapes grow on the vines, even though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no corn, even though the sheep all die and the cattle stalls are empty, I will still be joyful and glad because the LORD God is my saviour.“Habak 3:17-18
Joy is necessary in the life of a Christian as it is a sign of our salvation and our fruit. It builds perseverance through trials and it is important for the full life Jesus wants us to have.
Things could have gone much differently for Paul and Silas if they had not been so joyful in that Philippian jail. Joy helped them through those trials. Joy through our trials makes us stronger and better for God’s service.
“Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance” James 1:2-3
This endurance or patience, according to the book of James makes us perfect or thoroughly complete.
But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. James 1:4
Christ wants us to have full joy that remains, and we shouldn’t accept anything in life that doesn’t allow us to have full joy that remains
“These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full” John 15:11
“Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full” John 16:24
“Having many things to write to you, I did not wish to do so with paper and ink; but I hope to come to you and speak face to face, that our joy may be full. II John 1:12
It is obvious that Christ wants us to have full Joy and the only way to have this kind of joy is to constantly dwell in His presence. When we carry the presence of God, we naturally and automatically flow in joy
You make known to me the path of life; in your presence, there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”Psalm 16:11
But how can we dwell and rejoice in God’s presence if we do not know who he is? Jesus is the Son of God, who has saved us from our sins for a life of freedom with him.
Jesus wants a relationship with us and has given us his Holy Spirit so that we can hear his voice and get to know him better through God’s word. When we draw close to him, we can feel his peace beyond understanding, contentment in any situation, and even experience the fullness of Joy.
My prayer is that as we draw closer to Him this year in fellowship and in service, His joy will remain in us and our joy shall be full on every side in Jesus’ name!
Written by Pastor Adenike Omobulejo.