God's Plan: "Be Joyful"

         Have you had your Joy Juice today?  Do you believe that it is God’s plan that we soak up as much joy in the Lord as possible? 

            Throughout God’s Word we are told to “be joyful”, “be of good cheer”, “rejoice & be glad”. If it were not important to God, why would He instruct us so often about having joy?  He loves us! And He wants to bless us with joy because it’s a good thing.  God likes to give good things to His children.

            He, also, wants to keep us from harm.  That’s why He gives us guidelines and instructions throughout His Word.  He doesn’t say “Thou shalt not” because He doesn’t want us to have any fun!  On the contrary…His desire is that we stay in His will so that He can pour out blessings into our life….blessings of joy. 

            If we would learn to hear God’s voice in all circumstances, I firmly believe that we would experience more joy.  One important way to “hear God” is to allow the Scripture to penetrate our heart, to saturate our thoughts, to permeate our being. According to Charles Stanley (Waiting on God),  Scripture can “lead us, train us, correct our erroneous thinking, convict us of sin, influence our decisions or stop us when we are drifting from God’s will for our lives (2 Timothy 3:16-17). If all of that is true, why would we not want to read, study and meditate on the Word of God-- continually?

            Psalm 119:130 explains: “The unfolding of Your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.”  So……let’s simply “be joyful!”