{"id":17940,"date":"2014-02-19T00:15:54","date_gmt":"2014-02-19T05:15:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=17940"},"modified":"2014-02-18T23:56:49","modified_gmt":"2014-02-19T04:56:49","slug":"joy-lord","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2014\/02\/19\/joy-lord\/","title":{"rendered":"The Joy Of The Lord"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/psalmshymnsspiritualsongskjv.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-16629\" alt=\"psalmshymnsspiritualsongskjv\" src=\"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/psalmshymnsspiritualsongskjv.jpg\" width=\"341\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/psalmshymnsspiritualsongskjv.jpg 341w, https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/psalmshymnsspiritualsongskjv-300x175.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 341px) 100vw, 341px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>~ \u00a0Listen while you read, please! \u00a0~<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #800080;\">The joy of the Lord will be my strength <\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\">I will not falter, I will not faint <\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\">He is my Shepherd, I am not afraid <\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\">The joy of the Lord is my strength <\/span><\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"color: #800080;\">The joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #800080;\">The joy of the Lord will be my strength <\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\">He will uphold me all of my days <\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\">I am surrounded by mercy and grace <\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\">And the joy of the Lord is my strength <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #800080;\">The joy of the Lord will be my strength <\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\">And I will not waiver, walking by faith <\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\">He will be strong to deliver me safe <\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\">And the joy of the Lord is my strength<\/span><\/p>\n<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/eLOSZ7NwMlY\" height=\"315\" width=\"420\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/center><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">~ \u00a0Singer, Songwriter &#8211; Twila Paris \u00a0~<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #800080;\"><strong>* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">\u266c \u266a \u00a0The joy of the Lord will be my strength, \u00a0I will not falter I will not faint \u266a \u266c\u2026. \u201cBut Lord, how can that be? \u00a0I don\u2019t like my circumstances! \u00a0How can I be joyful in the midst of the toughest of places.\u201d \u00a0This is the question I have asked God in some of my most difficult of circumstances.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">I have survived a domestically violent first marriage. \u00a0I have walked through 2 \u00bd years of unemployment. \u00a0I have had a son in need of healing from a seizure\/sleep disorder and you know what I have found? \u00a0Even when I don\u2019t like my circumstances, it IS possible to find joy! \u00a0However it is ONLY found in God. \u00a0And it is NOT based on my circumstances. \u00a0It is only found when you have your eyes focused on Him and take them off of your circumstances.<\/p>\n<p>Here are a few things God promises in the midst of difficult times:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">WHAT THE ENEMY INTENDED FOR EVIL<br \/>\nGOD WILL TURN IT FOR YOUR GOOD<\/p>\n<p>Romans 8:28<br \/>\nAnd we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those<br \/>\nwho love God and are called according to His purpose for them.<\/p>\n<p>Isaiah 54:17<br \/>\n&#8230;No weapon formed against you shall prosper.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Some of my toughest circumstances are among some of my most powerful testimonies. \u00a0God has been faithful in each and every one of them. \u00a0Sisters, He is ALWAYS faithful!!! \u00a0As long as you have God, you have ALL that you need to get through ANY storm that may come your way. \u00a0Will you choose to trust Him in the midst of it? \u00a0When you choose Him, this is what He promises:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding,<br \/>\nwill guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.<br \/>\nPhilippians 4:7<\/p>\n<p>I am living proof that the peace of God which surpasses ALL understanding is very real!!! \u00a0I have experienced it firsthand in the toughest of places.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #800080;\">\u00a0<strong>* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Heavenly Father, I pray for my sisters reading this and ask that they would choose to take their eyes off their circumstances and instead choose to fix their eyes upon Jesus and \u201clook full in His wonderful face and &lt;then&gt; the things of this world will grow strangely dim.\u201d \u00a0And then they can sing just like the song says, Lord, \u00a0\u2018The joy of the Lord will be my strength and I will not waiver, walking by faith! \u00a0He will be strong to deliver me safe and the joy of the Lord is my strength!\u2019 \u00a0In Jesus\u2019 Name, Amen!!!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>~ \u00a0Listen while you read, please! \u00a0~ The joy of the Lord will be my strength I will not falter, I will not faint He is my Shepherd, I am not afraid The joy of the Lord is my strength The joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":159,"featured_media":16629,"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":[4937],"tags":[1287,425,2702,4654,1717,4932,914,1064,5552,4550],"class_list":["post-17940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-psalms-hymns-and-spiritual-songs","tag-gch","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-isaiah-5417","tag-kim-golds","tag-philippians-47","tag-psalms-hymns-spiritual-songs","tag-romans-828","tag-the-joy-of-the-lord","tag-the-joy-of-the-lord-is-my-strength","tag-twila-paris","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/psalmshymnsspiritualsongskjv.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-4Fm","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17940","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\/159"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17940"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17940\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17942,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17940\/revisions\/17942"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}