Being Joyful

With Christmas coming, the word, "Joy" is often heard. Yet many people are joyless. Loss of a loved one, lack of employment, sickness and disease, marital problems, child problems will sap joy right out of a person. In our minds, we should have a Charles Dickens or Norman Rockwell kind of Christmas. This sets us up for disappointment. Few if any have such a Christmas because "life" gets in the way. Only actors on TV and characters in a book or figures on a painting, people not real, have such Christmas'. All hope is not lost because we can't have these fantasy Christmas'. We just need to "get real" about Christmas. For one thing, it's not about us! Christmas has Pagan roots. The church made Christmas into a Christian holiday to lure people away from Paganism and into Christianity. We use Christmas to celebrate the great gift of God, his ONLY Son, Jesus who eventually redeemed us. No gift and no Christmas celebration can every match that original day! But the gift is for us and it is everlasting. It literally is, "The Gift that Keeps on Giving!" Marie Chapian, PhD, has written a meditation book called, "His Thoughts Toward Me" (Bethany House Publishers, Minneapolis, MN, 1987). It is a small book of different topics the Christian often deals with. She takes passages of scriptures and translates them to read as though Jesus were talking to you face to face. Here is something of Joy she (inspired by God's word) has written:

THE JOYFUL PERSON "Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to him for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord; and be not grieved and depressed, for the joy of the Lord is your strength and stronghold." (Neh. 8:10, Amp. Bible) I love you because you have chosen to live in My heart, which knows no ugliness and no sin. I love you because you are Mine; I can speak to you and you hear Me. When you lack joy, it is because you seek the experience of joy above Me. When you ache and long for just one taste of joy and feel it not, it is because you look for it in places outside your heart. I can tell you to rejoice because I AM joy. To rejoice is to drink of the essential essence of God, to be in My presence. You say, "But, Lord, You are invisible. How can I be joyful when I can't see You?" You are being garrisoned at this moment by My power through your faith. Is this not enough to make you exceedingly glad? Even though you may be distressed by trials for a little while, and suffer temptation, the genuineness of your faith becomes tested and it is more precious than perishable gold. Gold is always refined and purified by fire. And you, without having seen Me, love me. That which you cannot see brings out the greatest pleasure in all life. I constantly give, because I want your joy and gladness to be full, complete and overflowing. It is a delight for Me to tell you of the wonders in store for you when you live vitally untied to Me, when My words remain in your thoughts as permanent fixtures. You have ached for eternal joy and settled for drips of fun. how can you laugh with My holy laugh when Satan's talons are pulling you down into a sea of complaints? You know the Source of joy; now taste and see that I am good. I Peter 1:5-7; John 15:11 (Pages 86-88)