Is your heart full of Joy?

...the joy of the Lord is your strength. Nehemiah 8:10 b

I remember one speaker we had at church asked ..."Do you still have a tear in the corner of your eye for the things of the Lord"? Have we become so complacent that we no longer have a tear of joy in the corner of our eye when we see Christ at work? The Bible talks about how Heaven rejoices when one person comes to the Lord. (Luke 15:7) Joy is one of the fruits of the Spirit. (Galatians 5:22) The joy of the Lord is..."Strength". (Nehemiah 8:10)

Growing up you probably heard the acrostic, "J.O.Y.", Jesus first, others second and yourself last. If we are truthful with each other, it is all about US most of the time. What we want, what we need, what we desire, our rights and the "why me" concept that we have bought into. We tend to put ourselves first, others second and Jesus last, and we wonder why we do not have joy in our lives anymore.

If we have established our hearts (James 5:8), and focus on putting Christ first, we then will have a heart to serve others and the joy will be in our hearts once again. (Mark 10:45)

We are in a unique position today to show joy to others. Life around us is falling apart. The economy is failing, jobs are being lost, children are involved in things we never thought we would see, and there are wars, earthquakes, floods and disasters all around us. And yet we can have the JOY of the Lord in our hearts even though we have experienced some tragedy or disappointment ourselves.

I am sure that you know of someone in your life who you would consider as an example, someone who has real joy. Someone that you like to be around even when the chips are down, because they seem to have a certain something or a certain joy that you want. They might be the same someone that when you have good news to share, you just can't wait to tell them because you know they will be truly excited along with you. We need to be that same example to all who are around us.

The JOY that comes from Him is OUR strength. When we are weak, He is strong. Has the joy left your heart, have your tears dried up? Remind yourself that joy comes from the Lord and He is your strength today. Open your eyes wide and look for the work He is completing in front of you. Get those tears of joy flowing once again. Get the joy deep in your heart.

Lynn A Wilson

DIGGING DEEPER
Psalm 51:
7Purge me with hyssop,and shall be clean;
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones
that you have broken rejoice.

UPCOMING EVENT
May is fast approaching and we will be hosting our 2nd annual Family Freedom Walk on Saturday, May 8th. You can help in two ways. 1. walk - call guest services to obtain a walk package, solicit sponsors and come to the walk. 2. (this is a fun one) Sponsor Victory Call for the walk. We are having a friendly competition between the 2 groups of devotional readers (Freedom Fighters and Victory Call). Our goal is to raise more funds for the Victory Call team than the men raise for the Freedom Fighter's team. If you would like to join the fun, simply go to this link on our website https://01.secure.elexio.com/donations.aspx?id=366346&websiteurl=http://www.americaskeswick.org&siteid=2184 fill out the information and indicate in the "DESIGNATION" area : Family Freedom Walk: Victory Call or if you prefer make your check out to America's KESWICK and put in the memo line: FFW/Victory Call and mail to : America's KESWICK 601 Route 530 Whiting, NJ 08759. ALL DONATIONS MUST ARRIVE NO LATER THAN WEDNESDAY, MAY 5TH in order to be counted for our TEAM. Come on ladies, we can do it!!!