{"id":16552,"date":"2013-12-27T01:15:47","date_gmt":"2013-12-27T06:15:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=16552"},"modified":"2013-12-27T09:56:19","modified_gmt":"2013-12-27T14:56:19","slug":"16552","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2013\/12\/27\/16552\/","title":{"rendered":"God-Given Joy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SeekingHimLogo\"<\/a><\/p>\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\u00a0JOY<\/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\u00a0joy<\/span>\u00a0of His second Coming.<\/h3>\n

I\u2019m sitting here thinking about joy<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>and what it truly means. I have read books, watched videos, and talked to people about the concept of joy<\/strong> <\/span>and what it really means to be joyful, or to have joy, or to even fully understand the word joy<\/span><\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n

The words joy<\/span><\/em><\/strong> and happiness<\/em> are oftentimes used interchangeably, but I think it\u2019s so much more than simple happiness. We\u2019re happy opening presents, we\u2019re happy when our family and friends are over to celebrate. This is great! But happiness is a temporary emotion, a feeling that can leave us once something goes differently than we planned. But joy<\/span> <\/em><\/strong>is something different\u2026.<\/p>\n

After all the looking and researching I learned that joy<\/span> <\/strong>isn’t simply something that I can find. It isn’t the contents inside of a gift…it isn\u2019t something I can find in a job well done. Even though I can\u2019t touch joy<\/span><\/strong>, I can embrace it. I can embrace it because it is something that is given to us—something that we, as children of God, have been given a right to.<\/p>\n

To me joy<\/span> <\/strong>is a feeling in my heart and mind that no matter what happens in my life, that everything will be okay. I have joy<\/span> <\/strong>in knowing that I am loved with the most unconditional love by the Creator of everything. Growing up I always heard that our joy<\/span> <\/strong>is something that no man can ever take, that Satan can never take; this is because joy<\/span> <\/strong>is God-given<\/strong>, and what God gives us can never, ever \u00a0be touched. <\/strong>Joy <\/span>is ours<\/strong>.<\/em> <\/span>
\nWhat is joy to you?<\/p>\n

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy<\/span> <\/strong>and peace in believing,
\nthat you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
\nRomans 15:13<\/p>\n

Consider it all joy<\/span><\/strong>, my brethren, when you encounter various trials….
\nJames 1:2<\/p>\n

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

Let\u2019s pray: Dear Heavenly Father, so many things are temporary in this world. \u00a0They come and they go, but the joy that we are given by You can never be taken away. Lord, please open our hearts and minds to what joy<\/span><\/strong> truly is. In Jesus\u2019 Name we pray, Amen.<\/p>\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\u00a0JOY.\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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"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":[4651,4888,3173,1287,425,4910,577,4911,1801,3174,1075],"class_list":["post-16552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-devotions","tag-advent","tag-advent-week-4","tag-daily-devotional","tag-gch","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-james-12","tag-joy","tag-joy-cannot-be-taken-away","tag-romans-1513","tag-seeking-him-devotional","tag-tonya-ellison","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/SeekingHimLogo.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s39pHp-16552","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16552","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\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16552"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16552\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16564,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16552\/revisions\/16564"}],"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=16552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}