“As the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you.  Remain in My love.  If you keep my commands you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commands and remain in His love.

“I have spoken these things to you so that My joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.  This is My command:  Love one another as I have loved you.  No one has greater love than this, that  someone would lay down his life for his friends.”  John 15:10-13 HCSB

There is a difference between happiness and joy. The dictionary defines happiness as a state of contentment and joy as a feeling of great pleasure and happiness.  I define them this way.  Happiness is what I make for me, it can change as my circumstances change.  Joy is what God gives me in my heart and it remains even during bad times. So my question for you today is do you have happiness, joy, or neither?  For many years in my life, I did things that I hoped would make me happy.  I put me first and worked at happiness.  After years of this, it lead to me not being so happy.  I was living my life on an emotional roller coaster.  I was up when the circumstances of my life were really good and I went way down low when things were bad.  That resulted in me being mostly miserable with brief periods of happiness.  Sound familiar?

My problem was that I was putting me first.  Let me tell you, nothing good came of that.  The other night in his sermon our pastor gave us the acronym for joy.  J O Y;  Jesus first, others second, yourself last.

Now if you have read my blog for any amount of time, you know that I freely admit to being a slow learner.  It took me many, many years to get it through this thick head of mine.  But boy once I got it, it was awesome.  You see I was trying to manufacture happiness and getting nothing but heartache.  So when I turned to God and cried out to Him, He finally made me see that the only way I could get true joy, which is extreme happiness that can’t be stolen by the devil, is through Him.  I had to accept Him and accept this awesome love that He has for me.  If you are able to wrap your head around what God has done for you, then let me tell you that you can’t help but love Him.  If you love God and truly love God.  Then you will honor Him by loving others.  Get it?

Now hang on and stay with me here for a minute because I am about to take a big dip.  God even wants us to love our enemies.  Yep, I said it,  love your enemies.  Matthew 5:44 tells us that we are to love our enemies and pray for those that persecute us.  Now I will tell you that this is not an easy thing to do and it requires prayer.  The worse the enemy, the more prayer that may be required.  I have been there, done that and got the t-shirt. I have had people come against me and come against me with a vengeance.  It wasn’t a great experience, but it was a great learning experience.  I learned a few things through this trying time.

I learned that God’s word truly is the Sword of the Spirit.  When someone attacks you in person,  through a letter, email or text,  don’t answer them in the same angry tone.  Answer them in love, using scripture.  This totally disarms them.  I also learned that showing them love even when they are coming against you is like pouring water onto a fire.  It just douses it right out.  I have also learned that you try to show them God’s love and do your best to lead them to Christ, but if they refuse to listen, walk away.  In Matthew 10, Jesus sends his disciples out to witness and tells them that if anyone will not welcome them or listen to their words to shake the dust off their feet when they leave that house or town.  Know when to walk away, don’t let them drag you down with them.  We are also warned to not cast our pearls before swine (Matthew 7:6).

Know this, if we work at love, God gives us peace that passes all understanding (Philippians 4:7) and everlasting joy (Isaiah 35:10).  If you want joy, then love God with all you have (Deuteronomy 1:6, Matthew 22:37, Luke 10:27) and love others as you love yourself (Mark 12:31, Matthew 22:39).  Put Jesus first, others second, and yourself last.  When we do this we get this awesome joy that God provides and the devil can’t take away.  So put your trust in Him and treat yourself to some authentic joy today!

Have a great day!