by Joanne Wiklund
Happiness and joy. We’d like a full measure of peace, please thrown in with them. Peace right now seems impossible in the whole world, but it is possible to achieve sometimes in intervals when we speak with our Creator. Prayer means so much to me.
A book I read years ago was titled Are you running with me, Jesus? Written by an inner city priest, it had stories of his day, people he met, those he could help and those he lost along the way. We get so busy and forget to remind ourselves that He’s with us All the Way. My priorities have changed a lot. These days I choose what I’m doing on a daily basis, and I must remind myself to choose joy first. Happiness is situational, and often fleeting. Peace He left with us. I keep asking myself if Jesus left Peace with me, what did I do with it?
Joy, however, I think is a gift which keeps on giving. It’s origin is Middle Engish, from Old French joie, from the early Latin gaudere ‘rejoice’. The Bible keeps telling us to rejoice and why. That’s joy and rejoy. Means we can do it over and over again. Rejoice, always.
Isaiah 55:12 “Ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with Peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth to you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.”
John 16:22 “I will see you again and your heart will rejoice. And your joy no man taketh from you.”