joy

"Joy of the Lord"

acrylic over collage paper

©Teresa Kogut

If you had a choice would you rather be happy or joyful?.......what is the difference anyway???? This is a topic we discussed with our Edge youth group a couple months ago and it really stuck with me...to be honest, I never really thought about there being a difference between the two......

Happy - c. 1205 means lucky, favored by fortune, prosperous, chance.

Basically it is a feeling we get when something good happens to us. It can be fleeting.....very fleeting....as soon as something doesn't go our way, we are no longer "happy".

However, joy is another story. Joy is rooted deeper....it comes from within.....even when something has gone wrong, joy remains in us.....why? Because joy comes from faith; a confident trust in God. Faith is essential to joy because it wards off worry, doubt and fear.

I know from my own personal experience, I would not be joyful without my faith.....our family has faced some tough financial difficulties but I do not let that situation or happenstance (a chance circumstance) bring me down. I continue to pray, work hard, move forward and trust God. We always pull through or I should say, God always provides.

As Nehemiah told Israel:

"The Joy of the Lord is your strength."

Neh 8:10