Subject: Joy

The wonder of a flower blooming through snow. The gladness of forgiveness. The pleasure of trust. The happiness of progress, all belong to the joy given to us by God.

On the website Beliefnet.com, we can read “8 Irish Blessings.” To honor St. Patrick’s Day, one of the blessings is shared here:

MAY THE BLESSING OF LIGHT BE UPON YOU…

May the blessing of light be upon you,
Light on the outside,
Light on the inside.

With God’s sunlight shining on you,
May your heart glow with warmth,
Like a turf fire
that welcomes friends and strangers alike.

May the light of the Lord shine from your eyes,
Like a candle in the window,
Welcoming the weary traveller.

In the Bible, we have instruction to: Shout for joy, hear joy, and run our course with joy. For another reminder of the presence of joy, please read in your Bible, Psalm 65.

As for those times when joy disappears, Christ Jesus explained it’s because the joy wasn’t solid in the first place. Please read Luke 8: 4-15, to see how important it is not to simply act joyful over truth without first understanding it’s power. We need to grow roots in joy.

On Beliefnet, there is also a post that helps us grow roots by avoiding fake joy, titled, “10 Things that Steal your Joy.” We can stop complaining, stop procrastinating, and stop gossiping.

The post reads: “Being liked by everyone is so overrated. It’s much better to have God’s approval and love others from a genuine place, instead of neediness.”

The post ends with, “An active prayer life will help you tap into the joy of the Lord daily. May He release the joy realms of Heaven to you.”

Active prayer grounded in love is prayer united with joy.

Here is a story of joy from FoundPets.HomeAgain.com:

Posted By: Kristen, Kennewick, WA – 2/3/2017
Pet Name: DexterSpecies: DogBreed: Miniature SchnauzerSex: Male

“It had been snowing all morning when I let my two miniatures schnauzers, Dexter and Oscar, outside to do their business. They were out longer than usual, so I went out to check on them and realized a gate had been left open. I followed their tracks in the snow to the park but then the trail went cold. After an hour of driving around, I found Oscar, but Dexter was nowhere in sight. After another hour of driving, I figured Dexter had hunkered down some place warm. I went home to make posters and to call HomeAgain. Before I could hit print on the missing poster, I received a call back from HomeAgain. Dexter had been found! Animal control dropped him off at our house. We were so thrilled that our family was back together again!”

From 21^st Century Science and Health:

Earth has little light or joy before Life is spiritually learned.

Spiritual development doesn’t come from planting seeds in the dirt of materialist views. Those seeds rot whereas Love nurtures the higher joys of Spirit which have no taint of earth. We forget this when life is fine. But when mortals belch, or the economy goes sour, or people think their partner is boring, the heart is pierced with sadness until we remember that sorrow can be therapeutic, forcing us to enter the domain of spiritual happiness and reliance. God will take care of us as we travel a trajectory unfolding new views of divine goodness and love.

Spiritual Science presents unfoldment, not accumulation. Mind-science presents revelation, not big bang. There is no growth from material molecule to mind. Creation is the impartation of divine Mind. As human generation ceases, the unbroken links of eternal harmonious being will be discerned and person, not of the mortal flesh, but coexistent with God, will appear. The scientific fact that individuals and the universe are evolved from Spirit, and so are spiritual, is as fixed in divine Science as is the proof that mortals gain the experience of health only as they lose the sense of destruction and disease. Mortals can never understand God’s creation while believing that human beings are creators. Whether marriage or reproduction happens or not, God’s children, spiritual beings, already created, will be recognized as we awake to the truth of being. Spiritually to understand that there is but one creator, God, reveals all creation, confirms Scripture, and brings the sweet assurance of no parting and no pain, which in turn exposes the deathless, perfect, and eternal ideal.

Happiness can’t be defined by personal perceptions. The perceptions of human beings confer no lasting enjoyment.

Physical sense flaunts the belief that mind is temporal. Human belief—shifting between feelings of satisfaction and dissatisfaction, hope and fear, life and death—never breaks through the limiting factors of the mortal or the unreal. Ah! But when the real is experienced, joy is no longer fragile and hope is no longer a con artist.

Higher enjoyments alone can satisfy our cravings. Soul has infinite resources with which to bless humankind, and happiness is more readily responded to and more secure in our keeping if found in Soul.

Save yourself as Jesus saved. Strive. Advance spiritually. Constantly turn away from the objects of the human mind and look toward the imperishable things of Spirit. If honest, you will be in earnest from the start and joyfully gain a little each day in the right direction. If persistent, you will make the transition from limited substance to the substantial unlimited.

When a relationship is going well, pay attention, otherwise an increasing dependence on one another may yank the rug out from under your feet. If, on the other hand, your relationship is rocky, don’t react, but hope, pray, and wait patiently on divine wisdom to point the way.

Relationships are blessed, or not, according to the expectations involved and fulfilled. Happiness is gained as we interact with individuals adapted to elevate existence. The desire to improve should be the motive of society. Unity of spirit gives new energy to a sense of joy, whereas lame or unreasonable expectations drag joy through the mud.

Musical notes can be arranged to make harmony. Tones of the human mind are just as diverse as musical notes, and harmony is apparent as tones of unselfish ambition, noble life-motives, and honesty blend properly. Spiritual harmony constitutes individual and collective happiness, strength, and permanence.

The pains of the body can be salutary if they force the mind to dig itself out of false beliefs and transplant its affections in Soul, where the creations of God are good, “giving joy to the heart.”[1]

Now and forever, we joyfully acknowledge God’s supremacy, omnipotence, and omnipresence.

 

 

 

[1] Ps. 19:8