Joy is Close at Hand

Nehemiah 8:10 NLT  Don’t be dejected and sad, for the joy of the Lord is your strength!

Joel 3:10 AMP  Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weak say, I am strong [a warrior]!

Galatians 5:22-23  NLT  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.

As I am setting off on my day, determined to consider the Word of God in more and more things today, I'm considering my joy level.  Admittedly, I've always been somewhat of a wallflower, pretty even-keeled.  But even in my constant, consistent nature, there are days when confidence exudes a joy that can overtake the room without have to be a spastic display. 

In my role-play the other day, my director even commented that when I open up my smile, the atmosphere in the room changes and there is more of a flow happening.  I've had others mentioned that when I was participating on worship team at the time, the joy of the Lord was all over me and was evident by the huge smile on my face while I was worshipping.

So how close is this joy to us.  If you are a member of the Kingdom, a born-again believer, child of God - it is already in you.  That's right.  When you were born again, your spirit being was made new - (Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 2 Corinthians 5:17)  In that new spirit in us is all of the fruit listed in Galatians 5 - love, joy, peace, etc.  It's now just a matter of yielding to it.  We don't have to strive to be joyful or force ourselves to do it, it is already a part of us - we simply make the choice to operate in it.

When we yield to something, think of being at a four way stop and allowing someone else to go into the intersection.  You are making a conscious choice to hold yourself back and allow someone else to go.  In the case of yielding to the fruit of the spirit, we simply make the choice to not respond to or act out of our feelings or flesh in certain situations.  We filter that perception through the Word of God and then determine how we are going to respond.  If a situation says that I am going to suffer a financial setback, I look at it and say, "No, the word says that my God will meet all my needs according to His riches in glory and the Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want."  The Word of God trumps the situation and there is no reason for me to respond to that situation that suggests lack.  There is no reason for me to be agitated and have that concern of suffering loss cause me to be in a bad place and respond to someone improperly in a situation that probably has nothing to do with my financial well being.

I choose to yield to joy today.  To walk in joy and a firm confidence.  To allow the fruit of the spriit to be in operation because they are already in me.  Praise the Lord for his mercy and faithfulness.