April 18, 2016
The “joy of the Lord” is really just a state of mind and a state of heart. It’s being thankful because you know, first and foremost, that I have given you eternal life. When it comes down to it, you realize what the priorities of life are … what your life is all about.
You can keep this joy of the Lord asset no matter what anybody does to you, and no matter what circumstances you may find yourself in. You have eternal life in heaven! It’s like you’ve already won the main, top prize, and the extremely wonderful thing about it is that you can never lose it.
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The joy of the Lord is a state of mind. It’s realizing the reality of the spirit world, the eternal world. Remember what I said: “The kingdom of God is within you.”1 It’s there, right in you. My kingdom lives within you, within your heart.
The joy of the Lord is realigning priorities in proper order and proper perspective, and realizing that all these other nagging, incomplete, and sometimes frustrating details that are imperfect and that tend to get you down are really insignificant points that will someday pass away. Yet your spirit will remain and live for eternity. You’ve been saved! That’s a tremendous realization. It’s the right priority and view of life—your life! It’s fixing your gaze, which determines your attitude and actions, on the eternal values which you’ll be living by forever. It’s cutting yourself loose from the temporary setbacks.
The joy of the Lord is realizing the truth that you’ll live forever in a world of happiness. You, My friends, will be those who fulfill the Scripture, “The spirits of just men made perfect.”2 Perfect in love, perfect in joy, perfect in creation—that’s you! That’s where you’re headed. Regaining your joy is realizing the truth of this, and not being set back by the façades of the temporal.
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There is great power in a smile—when you smile, and keep smiling, even though you don’t feel like it. Even when things are going dead wrong, you’re tired, you feel overworked and undercharged, just smile. Keep it there, hold it, hold it. Keep smiling. You can do it! As you hold the smile, pretty soon you’ll feel the smile. It works!
I want you to enjoy life all throughout—not in several short, powerful bursts. I want you to create happy memories. I want you to spend time laughing with others and loving them. I want you to love, to live—to enjoy something every single day.
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Life is so much more enjoyable, and you are so much more pleasant to be around, if you have a merry heart and a happy, joyous spirit. It has nothing to do with what is happening in your personal life, or how many battles or trials you are going through. You can still have a smile in your eyes, a praise on your lips, and a very merry heart! You may have to use a fair amount of effort to stir yourself up enough that it comes to the surface and others can see it, but once you do, and once you get in the habit of practicing merriment, it will be automatic and second nature.
The main thing to remember is to not take life too seriously. Don’t take yourself too seriously, and don’t take others too seriously either. Learn the art of merriment, and practice it, too.
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Remember that you only have one chance for this earth life. This is it, so enjoy it while it lasts. Enjoy your service to Me while you are here. Enjoy the company of those you live and work with, because it won’t last forever. Enjoy your present circumstances, because this is the only time you’ll be here like this, in this place, with these loved ones. Enjoy time! Enjoy the moment, because in a moment this present moment will be past. You’re alive! Enjoy it!
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You can reminisce about good times or regret bad times. You can remember with fondness how you did enjoy the moment, or lament that you didn’t. But the only actual time you can enjoy the moment is right now, at the moment. So seize the moment! Seize the day! Seize the joy!
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The psalmist said 3,000 years ago: “Thou wilt show me the path of life: in Thy presence is fullness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.”3 That, My friends, is the secret formula. You can find your joy if you dwell in My presence. I am a joyful God, and if you stay close, that joy cannot help but cover you as well.
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I would love it if the world was filled with joyous and godly laughter: jolly, infectious, festive, holy laughter, the kind that spreads joy to the world! “Happy is that people, whose God is the Lord!”4 I love to hear My people filled with joy, and that joy being manifested in laughter. It reaches up to Me like praise does. It is very like praise and is often mingled with praise. It is joy to the world, and a joy for Me to hear.
I am talking about the laughter that lifts spirits and transcends the confines of the physical world and fills the halls of heaven with joyous celebration! Laughter can lift the spirits of humanity, and you all know how desperate that need is.
So go into the highways and byways and bring them into My kingdom and cause them to burst forth in joy! Go into the places where people are lonely and spread laughter and sunshine. Go forth and make people laugh, and you will make My day! Let the earth be filled with laughter!
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Joy and peace and happiness in your heart should be constants in your life for Me. They should not be dictated by how things look or what is going on around you. The key to having My joy in your hearts, My loves, is to remember that this joy is My joy, not yours.
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My joy isn’t based on fleeting things that come and go, or on your circumstances. My joy is based on the happy future, what will come to be, what potential there is in each situation—the potential I have placed in you. My joy is based on the eternal things, on loving and reveling in the joy of My creations, the joy of love, and all the other eternal joys that money can’t buy.
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You can be happy if you rejoice with My joy. My joy allows you to be happy and praiseful and carefree even when you are surrounded by many cares, because it comes from the highest heavens, way, way beyond any of these earthly problems.
There is so much joy to be found with Me, so much happiness, so much love in heaven, so many successes and triumphs in your future, and so many blessings and wonderful things to be found in your present. I’m allowing you to be happy even despite the seemingly unhappy things, because there is a world of joy beyond yours, yet not out of your reach.
I’m your bridge, your door to that world. Through Me you can gain access to that happier world, no matter what’s going on here. You can be happy anyhow, and rise above—not just through your tears, but with peals of heavenly laughter ringing in your voice!
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Start looking for the things in each day that I bring along to make you happy, to give you pleasure or enjoyment or satisfaction or contentment. There are big things too, but focus first on the small things, because they are all part of My love for you. I want to see you take pleasure in every blessing that I’ve given you. But I also want to teach you a more permanent joy, a more lasting happiness that isn’t dependent merely on earthly things.
The happiness that I bring is faith-based; it sees beyond the moment and revels in the eternal nature of My love for you.
Originally published in 2009. Excerpted and republished April 2016.
Read by Maria Fontaine. Music by Michael Dooley.
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