Encouragement Friday---Joy Filled

I remember having a conversation in bible  study with two of my good friends, we were talking about joy. And my best friend said that she was reading somewhere that joy is more than a feeling or an experience it's a something that we can either choose to have or not.  That stuck with me as I read a devotional about joy earlier today. We can seek to be joyful in the midst of pain or we can choose to just give up. The devotional mentioned John 3:27-29, "John answered and said, “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but, ‘I have been sent before Him.’  He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled.  He must increase, but I must decrease".  Just as the verse says, more of him and less of us. we find our joy in God just as John did, we also find our joy in his word. Joy is freedom to not go along with what the world says we should feel, but to see things through God's eyes. So i encourage you as you go throughout this weekend, to find joy in the midst of whatever you are going through weather it be pain, suffering...etc. Find joy in the midst of the darkness, find joy in his word, go grab your bible and soak it up.

Here's a little snippet of the devotional---

"You overshadow.
You reach in, through and over the severed state of man, and You align — us, with You.
I adore You, Father who meets me, undeserving, right where I am and calls me higher … just then, in that moment.
Joy is freedom from the world’s limitations. Joy is when my expectations, buried deep within, are given permission. Joy is when I not only see all that is available in You, but I take infant-steps to walk it out."

He Knew Joy, by Sara (Everything bitter is sweet)