Where Is Your Joy?

You know how our taste buds mature along with our bodies and minds? It’s the same for joy, isn’t it? If you were to make a quick mental list of what brought you joy, starting with the earliest age you can remember, you’d easily see how this shifted over time, some of that shift being a result of your age and some a result of your life experience.

On your brings-me-joy list, at this time of your life, you’d perhaps include people, pets, material items, adventures, maybe even entertainment forms, and whatever else brings you joy. Perhaps you’ve even reached a point when you no longer look for who and what can bring you joy, but for who and what you derive joy from. And, maybe what you looking for is the kind of joy that lasts and grows, one with a foundation that never falters.

About three years ago (as I write this), God conveyed a very clear and convincing message to me that said, “Time to stop messing around in the enemy’s kingdom and return to Mine.” So one night, I’m having a quiet talk with the Father and I tell Him a truth from my heart: “I trust Your wisdom implicitly.” He responded with, “Do you trust My love as much?”

A couple of weeks later, I’m having a quiet talk with Jesus—I don’t recall about what—and He asked me, “Where is your joy in me?”

Have you noticed that when God asks a question, it’s a meaningful one? It also tends to redirect your thoughts, words, actions, faith quotient, and path for your life—in some measure. It definitely redirects what fills you with joy, the true kind that, like the mustard seed, starts small in your heart and mind and grows and matures in alignment with your spiritual growth and maturity. The kind of joy meant to form branches strong enough to reach others seeking this sustaining kind of joy.

I’ve also noticed that God listens carefully to the questions I ask Him aloud and the ones I don’t. For example, in answer to several questions I’d posed to Him recently (including upon waking the morning I started writing this), an article from CharismaNews came to my attention. If He meant me to read it right at the time I was writing to you, maybe He’d like you to read it as well. Title: “Prophetic Intercessor: What God Wants Every Person Over 50 to Know Right Now.” For your convenience, if you’d like to read it, I’ve included the link at the end. Here’s the first paragraph from that article:

“For the generation over 50, the Lord wants to remind you that your age is your biggest asset, and your journey has increased in such value that all of heaven is now looking for you. Your weariness does not disqualify you from greatness.”

I want to clarify that I agree with the editor of the Put Old on Hold Journal that significant decline as we gain in years is, more often than not, a result of particular mental and physical practices and or habits, not an inevitability. But as I said from the start, the reality is that our life experiences are unique. It’s imperative we allow ourselves to find true joy, whatever that means to us and whatever our circumstances are. A fast way to lose our joy is to compare our circumstances to another’s. God doesn’t do that. Only the world system asks us to do that. God’s ways are always better, with longer-lasting—you might say, eternal—outcomes and rewards.

True joy is something other than what the world wants us to believe it is. The ways of the world may feel good for a while, but eventually, they steal joy from us, that is, if joy comes solely from some external source. What happens if or when that external factor alters? True joy must come from elsewhere, where the foundation is never shaken. The closer we get into relationship with God, the more He replaces false, fallible worldly joy with His joy, which sustains us differently.

Jesus asked me: “Where is your joy in Me?” If He asked you that question, how would you answer Him?

CharismaNews Article: https://tinyurl.com/yx9djfdw.