Joy is a virtue that I'm discovering is not easy for me to define. I've been doing my own personal study to help me accurately and clearly communicate about it. Christmas is a time of Joy (Joy to the world, the Lord is come....). I want to make sure that what it is intended to be, from God's view, is true for me this year.
I found these thoughts from Jack Hayford's book, "Come And Behold Him". Enjoy...
Come and behold Him! Gaze with me into the face of Joy! Joy is more than merriment, more than happiness, and more than the other myriad of human expressions and experiences we use to describe happy fulfillment. Joy includes them all, but transcends them by leagues.
Joy is the inner knowing that everything you were ever meant to know and to be has been arranged for you - and is forthcoming, as you grow toward it.
Joy is the certainty that whatever leashes your life to less than Love, or whatever has stained your soul with shame or failure, has been neutralized by the one power that can free and forgive us all - the living Christ.
He is the reason for Christmas. His name is on it, and so is the seal of His pleasure with all those who celebrate His coming. The scripture and the carols we sing not only point to Him who is the Way, but provide a way for you [us] to rejoice in His coming!
When the angels sang, when the prophets spoke, and when a star shone on high, they all said the same thing: Come and behold Him.
That is wisdom...beholding Him! Because any Christmas that brings you and I closer to Him is one that not only brings us closer to a joy-filled season...it will bring us to the Fountain of Joy Himself.
His name is Jesus. Be blessed with the most joyous of Christmases as you allow His Spirit to guide you in re-joy-ing over His coming!
Merry Christmas!
Mitch
