Pure Joy Part Two~

Happy TGIF ~

We've been looking at God's gentle encouragement to "consider it pure joy," when faced with problems. Not just joy, as though that weren't hard enough, but PURE joy.

Let us turn to our on-line resource, dictionary.com, for clarification.

Joy means, "the emotion of great delight or happiness caused by something exceptionally good or satisfying." Pure means, "free from anything of a different, inferior, or contaminating kind; free from extraneous matter: pure gold; pure water."

That's a simplistic definition for all us spiritual giants, but there is a lot of truth here. Obviously we can have joy when exceptionally good and/or satisfying things are happening. But God puts the word "pure" in front of the kind of joy He wants us to have because our level of happiness and delight should not depend on how many struggles we are facing. He wants us having joy no matter what--free from external influences. The junk of life so easily contaminates our joy, however, so what are we to do?

Just this morning I received an email from Max Lucado that thoroughly blessed my soul.

I love love love him and highly recommend ANYTHING he has ever written. He brought something to my attention that I had never noticed before.

“On the night he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread and gave thanks to God for it.” (I Corinthians 11:23)

What frame of mind do you think you or I would be in if we were about to face the greatest struggle of our life and knew it was coming? Yet our Lord takes the time to say thanks...

This is only possible if we make having joy that is free from external circumstances a priority. And we get better at it by practicing. And one of the ways we practice is by being thankful.

Allow me to share a prayer that someone prayed yesterday. Some details will be omitted to protect privacy.

"Dear Lord, Thank You that You preserve my life and the life of my child. Thank You that while I am waiting for You to open up my child's eyes to the error of her ways, I can have joy in knowing that You will never get frustrated or weary of hearing me and helping me. I have joy because even though I do not have all the answers, You do. You have never let me down before, and knowing that strengthens my soul. You have all the answers, all the solutions, and all the power for my situation, and You are willing to share. You are a sharing and caring Father, and You sings songs of love over me, which settles my heart. You have not taken Your eyes off my child for one second, and You are busy busy busy bringing about a change in the direction my child is headed. I have joy because of Your great promise that You will work everything out for my benefit and my child's benefit..."

That's just a small portion of what my buddy prayed. Isn't that fantastical? Sometimes only the melding of two words--fantastic and phenomenal--can explain an emotion!

Pray that prayer for yourself and edit according! Our Lord has set the example and shown us what we need to do when facing the greatest storms of life.

In Jesus' name, AMEN~

Keep Us From Harm~

Monday greetings:)


One of my favorite quotes goes like this: "Seven days without prayer makes one weak." But I know it does not apply to any of us; feel free to share it with the heathens in your life!


At this point we are all so familiar with Jabez and his awesome prayer that we should all be eager and ready to approach God wiht the same requests. Jabez did not hold back and we shouldn't either.

1 Chronicles 4:10 Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, "Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain." And God granted his request.


Last week we ended with a closer look at what it means to have God's hand with us. Today we look at Jabez's request to keep him from harm.


H-A-R-M--the possibilities are endless. Other versions of the Bible say "evil," or "trouble."


Frankly, I try not to watch the news too much because there's so much in it about harm, evil, and trouble; it's easy to lose our focus on Whose child we are. We can become downright paranoid, which would be a direct defiance of one of God's most beautiful encouragements. Philippians 4:8 "And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise."


God encourages us to fix our thoughts on the good stuff because dwelling too much on the bad stuff will drive us nuts. But what are we to do with the fact that harm actually does exist and in abundance? How can we think on the lovely and pure and right when so many things are unlovely and dirty and wrong wrong wrong?


The first step is to take a queue from Jabez and do what he did. Cry out to God to keep you and the ones you love from harm.


I just served six days on a jury for the trial of a man accused of sexually assaulting three different women during a massage. The details were graphic and troubling. I had difficulty sleeping just thinking about the allegations and my responsibility to do justice. All kinds of thoughts kept popping into my head about my daughters, sisters, friends, children I know, and just how vulnerable we can all be.


On the third night of tossing and turning, I had enough. I whispered to God Jabez's prayer word for word. I found great comfort in knowing that God understands there is evil in this world, that we humans are susceptible to all kinds of fears, and that He provides protection in response to our pleas.


PRAYER: Dear Lord, Keep us and our families from all harm. Thank You that Your hand is with us, and we are covered, protected, and shielded all the days of our lives. In Jesus' name, AMEN~