Faith Or Joy?

This time of year it is everywhere, from songs on the radio to signs on our front lawns. Joy. Glittering lights, Christmas trees, cookies, caroling, time spent with family – and if you're lucky a sleigh ride. From outside it looks perfect, doesn’t it?

But once you open the door and step across the threshold a new picture meets you- a race for perfection, stress over the right gift, if only that family member will put in an appearance, traffic, grumps, and for some the question of “Will I be invited to the family get together this year?” “Will I be ignored again?” and the worst one “Will someone even remember me?”

In this season of ‘Joy,’ I think we often we forget the real meaning of ‘Joy’. A quick look in the dictionary reveals “a feeling of happiness” But if you look in the bible it gives you a completely different meaning. It’s an expectation of something great. It's a rejoicing, rapture- like Christmas, the birth of a baby that would save the world.

Joy is not happiness. Happiness comes and goes like the tide, but joy? Joy is like gravity- constant, never ebbing or swaying. It reaches each of us where we are and turns us into a beacon, a mirror to reflect Him to others. Joy gives us endurance to finish the race, it gives us hope to carry on and Faith that when we fail- He will be right there to pick you up again.

Joy is a gift, it can’t be faked like happiness. Joy is the focus on the prize and not what is right in front of you.

Joy, Faith and Hope go hand in hand. Like sisters. They hold each other up. Because of my Faith I have Joy, and because of Joy I have Hope. Joy is something to be received, to be prayed for…