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This Week’s Devotional Topic
JOYFUL HEART
God has provided many reasons that we can have a joyful heart. Let’s listen to God’s prescription for joy in our lives as we hear examples and testimonies of joy listed for us in scripture, God’s word, the Bible.
Psalms 95:1-6 Come, let us sing to the LORD! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come to Him with thanksgiving. Let us sing psalms of praise to Him. For the LORD is a great God, a great King above all gods. He holds in His hands the depths of the earth and the mightiest mountains. The sea belongs to Him, for He made it. His hands formed the dry land, too. Come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the LORD our maker, for He is our God. We are the people He watches over, the flock under His care. If only you would listen to His voice today!
Proverbs 17:22 A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.
Isaiah 61:10,11 I am overwhelmed with joy in the LORD my God! For He has dressed me with the clothing of salvation and draped me in a robe of righteousness. I am like a bridegroom in his wedding suit or a bride with her jewels. The Sovereign LORD will show His justice to the nations of the world. Everyone will praise Him! His righteousness will be like a garden in early spring, with plants springing up everywhere.
Psalms 5:11 …let all who take refuge in You rejoice; let them sing joyful praises forever. Spread Your protection over them, that all who love Your name may be filled with joy.
Psalms 30:4,5 Sing praises to the LORD, O you his saints, and give thanks to his holy name. For his anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.
I Kings 8:66 On the eighth day he (King Solomon) sent the people away, and they blessed the king and went to their homes joyful and glad of heart for all the goodness that the LORD had shown to David his servant and to Israel his people.
Romans 15:31-33 Pray that I will be rescued from those in Judea who refuse to obey God. Pray also that the believers there will be willing to accept the donation I am taking to Jerusalem. Then, by the will of God, I will be able to come to you with a joyful heart, and we will be an encouragement to each other. And now may God, who gives us His peace, be with you all. Amen.
II Corinthians 2:3 That is why I wrote to you as I did, so that when I do come, I won’t be grieved by the very ones who ought to give me the greatest joy. Surely you all know that my joy comes from your being joyful.
Ezra 3:10-13 When the builders completed the foundation of the LORD’s Temple, the priests put on their robes and took their places to blow their trumpets. And the Levites, descendants of Asaph, clashed their cymbals to praise the LORD, just as King David had prescribed. With praise and thanks, they sang this song to the LORD: “He is so good! His faithful love for Israel endures forever!” Then all the people gave a great shout, praising the LORD because the foundation of the LORD’s Temple had been laid. But many of the older priests, Levites, and other leaders who had seen the first Temple wept aloud when they saw the new Temple’s foundation. The others, however, were shouting for joy. The joyful shouting and weeping mingled together in a loud noise that could be heard far in the distance.
John 15:9-11 “I have loved you even as the Father has loved Me. Remain in My love. When you obey My commandments, you remain in My love, just as I obey My Father’s commandments and remain in His love. I have told you these things so that you will be filled with My joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!
If for no other reason, we can and should have a joyful heart when we get a perspective of God’s love…
Romans 8:31-39 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 14:17,18 For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. If you serve Christ with this attitude, you will please God, and others will approve of you, too.
And in the words of Jesus…
John 16:22 So you have sorrow now, but I will see you again; then you will rejoice, and no one can rob you of that joy.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, as you go through hard times and can’t find joy, then go back in your mind to the moment when you realized what God did for you through His gift of salvation. And if you are listening now and don’t understand how there could possibly be any joy in your life, then consider the fact that God loves you, he loves you now, just the way you are and has made a way that you can have a close relationship with Him. Recognize that you are sinner. Sin will keep you from having real joy. Believe the truth concerning Jesus Christ, God’s son. Receive His free gift of salvation today, right now.
This week’s Scripture:
Psalms 5:11; 30:4,5; 95:1-6; Proverbs 17:22; Isaiah 61:10,11; Romans 15:31-33; I Kings 8:66; Ezra 3:10-13; II Corinthians 2:3; John 15:9-11; Romans 8:31-39; 14:17,18 and John 16:22
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