{"id":23905,"date":"2018-10-02T03:30:20","date_gmt":"2018-10-02T10:30:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/?p=23905"},"modified":"2018-09-28T14:06:03","modified_gmt":"2018-09-28T21:06:03","slug":"october-2-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/2018\/10\/02\/october-2-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"October 2, 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"
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“When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought me joy.”\u00a0<\/em>Psalm 94:19<\/p>\n

Close to the Springs of Joy<\/strong><\/h2>\n

When we go through hard times, the \u201cstorms\u201d of life, one of the first things to disappear can often be our joy. It seems to get sucked up in the storm, much like a tornado sucks up everything in its path.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been in the midst of a number of storms all at once recently, and I\u2019ve been thinking that I don\u2019t want to lose my joy! One of the storms involves physical pain. Physical pain can especially rob us of joy because so much of our energy goes into battling the pain. I\u2019ve been reflecting each day on maintaining my joy in these stormy times.<\/p>\n

One of the things I realized is that joy is a choice. The Bible says, \u201cThe joy of the Lord is your strength\u201d <\/em>(Nehemiah\u00a08:10).\u00a0But to receive that joy from Him, we have to choose to turn to Him, to stay tucked in close to Him. He doesn\u2019t force Himself on us. We must choose to draw close to Him in order to receive the joy that brings strength.<\/p>\n

Staying close to the Lord in the midst of the storm keeps us close to His springs of joy.\u00a0Those springs are unlimited, and they flow freely from His loving hand and His throne of grace.\u00a0He longs to baptize us in His joy\u2014especially during stormy times.<\/p>\n

I remember when I was 15 years old.\u00a0I was in the hospital with a serious illness. It was also at an important juncture in my walk with the Lord.\u00a0I cried out to the Lord while laying in that hospital bed, and had the most wonderful experience.\u00a0I felt the Lord say He wanted me to experience His joy.\u00a0He wanted me to know what was in store for me in walking with Him. I could almost physically feel a fountain of joy being turned on inside of me.\u00a0Joy bubbled up uncontrollably.<\/p>\n

I started to giggle and laugh because my heart was so overwhelmed with His joy.\u00a0At the same time I felt His love, His closeness, His peace.\u00a0All the things I was worried about just evaporated in the midst of His abundant joy.\u00a0I felt cocooned in a bubble of His joy.\u00a0It was the most awesome experience.\u00a0And the next morning the doctors came in and said they couldn’t find any trace of the illness.\u00a0They released me and sent me home.<\/p>\n

Many times through the years when I’ve been in “storms,” I’ve remembered that joy!\u00a0I don’t want to miss out on it. His wonderful, abundant, incredible joy is independent of the circumstances in our lives.\u00a0We need to wait in His presence and ask Him to fill us with His joy!\u00a0I’ve been doing that in the midst of my present storms, and His joy has been flowing into my heart.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank You, Lord, for Your joy!\u201d<\/em>
\n<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>

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