Advent Devotional: Intro to Joy

As Jesus was carried to heaven, His followers were filled with great joy. They understood the joy of salvation. They understood the joy that comes in complete worship. Their joy lead them to Bless God, but their joy also lead them to share the story of Jesus, their teacher.

Do you have joy?  Not happiness but radiant joy of your salvation?

Worship fills me with that kind of joy. The music stirs my soul and I cannot help but feel joy.  Our joy is often confused with happiness, but joy is not the same. Happiness is fleeting and Joy runs much deeper.  Joy comes from the peace, the love, and the hope that all come from God which are found in the fulfillment of the promises of God.  Our joy comes from the empty tomb.  The cross was the suffering and grief, but in the morning the rock was rolled away and the tomb was empty. Jesus even said the rocks would cry out.  That’s the source of Joy.

Tauren Wells said it in his song “Joy In The Morning”:  “You’ll never have peace if you don’t let go of tomorrow.”  This applies to all four weeks of our devotional. If we are so consumed by tomorrow (and the trouble it brings), then we cannot find Hope, Peace, Love or Joy that our salvation offers us.  Each morning, we have a new opportunity to see the Hope, the Peace, the Love, and the Joy of our salvation. We should be moved to worship with the first sip of coffee, with the first breath we take. Our first thoughts should be a prayer of thanksgiving to God for whatever rest we managed.

Sadly, our first thoughts rarely bless God. Our thoughts are on the day at hand. But what if we started the mornings filled with great joy and peace because we worshipped the God of Hope, Peace and Love?   We would have great joy!  It would be a continuous cycle of worship and joy-filled moments instead of dread, stress and anxiety.

This week I want to challenge you to find moments to worship—this is for me too.  My prayer as I am writing this is for me to bless God. Not that He blesses me, He’s already done that.

Bless Him…How?