{"id":16391,"date":"2013-12-23T00:30:57","date_gmt":"2013-12-23T06:30:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=16391"},"modified":"2013-12-21T01:09:40","modified_gmt":"2013-12-21T07:09:40","slug":"joy-of-the-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2013\/12\/23\/joy-of-the-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Joy of the Season"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"SeekingHimLogo\"<\/a><\/div>\n
\n

Each week during the season of Advent, our blogs will focus on a central theme which is associated with the coming of Christ\u2014His Advent. \u00a0This final week\u2019s theme is JOY<\/span>.\u00a0 Christians throughout the world celebrate Advent. \u00a0Some light candles or sing songs; some give gifts or \u00a0hang\u00a0wreaths. \u00a0All of these are simple joyous\u00a0ways of extending the celebration\u00a0of Jesus\u2019s coming beyond a mere 24 hours on\u00a0December 25.\u00a0Our prayer is that these devotionals\u00a0throughout\u00a0this season of Advent would help you to celebrate His first Coming and anticipate with\u00a0the peace\u00a0and joy of His second Coming.<\/h3>\n

* * * * * * *<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The definition of Joy<\/strong>:<\/span>\u00a0“…the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one desires; the expression or exhibition of such emotion gaiety<\/a>;\u00a0a state of happiness or felicity bliss<\/a>; a source or cause of delight”<\/p>\n

And the angel said to them, \u201cFear not, for behold,
\nI bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.
\nLuke 2:10 (ESV)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I can just imagine the awestruck look of the shepherds when they saw and heard the Angel of the Lord right beside them. Then seeing and hearing the heavenly host singing praised to God about the birth of His son Jesus! I would think that not many people had ever heard the voices that are God’s exclusive choir. We have the opportunity every day to share the joy of God’s love, mercy, and grace.<\/p>\n

During the Christmas season, we need to focus on what is real about this holiday—celebrating the birth of Jesus and what promises He brings to us, His people. As we celebrate this Christmas season, let us find new ways to bring Christ back into our homes. This can be done by reading the Nativity story, or asking the younger children to act out the story at home and by singing praises to God our Father.<\/p>\n

Be sure to share the joy of receiving Christ into your heart with others. Write down your testimony and prepare to share it with others. You may be surprised of how much your story could inspire others to believe—or better yet—to rededicate their life to God. We each have our journey that began at birth. We have walked out things in common with each other but some things will be unique to our own lives. Who knows if God had us walk through those circumstances to come through and be able to help others with similar situations…?<\/p>\n

Joy is ultimately a choice, just as forgiveness is a choice. We each have a decision to make. Belief and trust in God will allow us to make changes in what we do and think and say in our everyday life. Joy is an inward change and one that was greatly hoped and prayed for when Jesus was born several thousand years ago.<\/p>\n

Let’s pray<\/strong><\/span>. \u00a0Father, thank You for loving us enough to send Your Son, Jesus, to become one of us. Thank You for wanting to show us the kind of relationship You have desired with us since You created Adam and Eve. We each search for that relationship that only You can give. You will always complete the void in our lives. \u00a0We pray in Jesus’ name, amen.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Each week during the season of Advent, our blogs will focus on a central theme which is associated with the coming of Christ\u2014His Advent. \u00a0This final week\u2019s theme is JOY.\u00a0 Christians throughout the world celebrate Advent. \u00a0Some light candles or sing songs; some give gifts or \u00a0hang\u00a0wreaths. \u00a0All of these are simple joyous\u00a0ways of extending […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":13840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3020],"tags":[4866,4651,3173,1287,425,577,4865,3174,1071],"class_list":["post-16391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-devotions","tag-4th-week-of-advent","tag-advent","tag-daily-devotional","tag-gch","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-joy","tag-luke-210","tag-seeking-him-devotional","tag-tina-marin","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/SeekingHimLogo.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-4gn","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16391"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16391\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16400,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16391\/revisions\/16400"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}