God's Promise of Joy!

            Have you had your Joy Juice today?   It will be such a blessing if we’ll learn to drink it faithfully!

            As we near the end of 2017, I’d like to thank each of you who have listened throughout the past year and sipped your JOY JUICE along with me each morning. As we reflect over the past year, each of us had some unexpected things to happen…some good, some bad.  There were times of joyful celebration…and there were tough times like deaths of loved ones, health issues, marriages that fell apart. Where is the joy in those kinds of things?

            Keep in mind that God never promised us that we’d always be HAPPY! Instead, through people like Paul and James, He reminded us often that we will have trials and tribulations throughout our life!  But even then, we can have JOY.  It’s in the truth that GOD will be there to walk with us through those tough times…and we’ll be better for having gone through them.

            James 1:2-4 tells us, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.  Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

• Thank you God for being with us through the times of heartache.
• Thank you, Father, for giving us your strength when we didn’t think we could make it!
• Thank you, Lord, for friends and family who stand beside us when we need help AND to celebrate with us in times of happiness.

In happy times and through our challenges, let’s call upon God’s promise of joy in relationship with Him.