WHO ADDS to YOUR JOY?

Oh, happy day to you! Thanks for joining me for more of this series on joy! These truths are truly freeing me from some of my self-inflicted persecution on this subject! I hope and pray they are doing the same for you. I know I’ve heard from a couple of you out there who have expressed an appreciation for the affirmation of all that it takes to receive, keep and walk in joy! Grab your coffee and come on in.
Before I return to Psalm 16:11, I have to shout for joy about something and I’d love for you to praise Him with me for this: Today is my ten-year wedding anniversary! Woo-hoo! Can I get a witness?!??!!!! I’M SUPER EXCITED and for those of you long-time covenant keepers, I know; ten years isn’t that long. But considering my history, especially my relational history, this is a God-given miracle! I’ve never been married this long, and what is crazy about that is I was never going to get married again!
God has used this man to cut away that which needed to go, to refine what was good in me to be better, and to love me in a way I have never experienced. God has used George to increase my joy!
So, happy anniversary to the man God chose for me and with whom I choose to stay in covenant with. You are a part of my joy and I thank God for the gift of you!
Now let’s get back to verse  Psalm 16:11 and the Hebrew translation for this type of joy: The Hebrew translation is “samach” and means to brighten up, usually refers to a spontaneous emotion or extreme happiness which is expressed in some visible and/or external manner. It does not normally represent an abiding state of well-being or feeling. STOP!
Ah-ha, so this fits what we talked about yesterday; there is spontaneous emotion or extreme happiness that we experience when we press in and choose to be in His presence; however, this translation tells us that this does not normally represent an abiding state of well-being, or that “feeling” of joy.
You might be asking, “Isn’t that a bit contradictory, then?” No, and here’s why: we live in this tent of flesh making it impossible to abide in joy 24/7, much less joy abiding in us 24/7. I hope that was clearer than mud. See, it is only when we seek to sit in His presence that that joy within us can get stirred up and as it is stirred, it rises, reminding it is abiding within.
In addition, the Hebrew concordance describes this type of joy as: an emotion which arises at festivals, circumcision feasts – what a weird feast! :) -- wedding feasts, harvest feasts and/or the overthrow of one’s enemies. The emotion is usually described as the product of some external situation, circumstance, or experience”!
Ah-ha, so it takes an external circumstance to stir up an internal joy!
More joy to you, my coffee hour friend,

Evinda