{"id":1701,"date":"2015-01-02T13:11:24","date_gmt":"2015-01-02T18:11:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/?p=1701"},"modified":"2015-01-02T13:11:24","modified_gmt":"2015-01-02T18:11:24","slug":"joy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/2015\/01\/02\/joy\/","title":{"rendered":"~ JOY ~"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Happiness is caused by things that happen around me, and circumstances will mar it; but joy flows right on through trouble; joy flows on through the dark; joy flows in the night as well as in the day; joy flows all through persecution and opposition.” ~ D.L. Moody<\/p>\n

Reading in James chapter one this morning reminded me of one of my newest kitchen signs…from Hobby Lobby, of course!\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

James 1:2-4 says, “My brethren, count it all joy<\/span> when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.”<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Counting everything that comes our way as JOYOUS is often easier said than done<\/span>. I think that is why I liked the above sign so much – it reminds me that counting ALL things JOY\u00a0is a choice<\/span> that we can indeed make if we so desire. If it were impossible, God’s Word would not exhort us to do so.<\/p>\n

Matthew Henry’s comments on this are:<\/p>\n

[One Christian grace to be exercised is joy: Count it all joy, (Jas 1:2). We must not sink into a sad and disconsolate frame of mind, which would make us faint under our trials<\/span>; but must endeavour to keep our spirits dilated and enlarged, the better to take in a true sense of our case, and with greater advantage to set ourselves to make the best of it. Philosophy may instruct men to be calm under their troubles; but Christianity teaches them to be joyful<\/span>, because such exercises proceed from love and not fury in God. In them we are conformable to Christ our head, and they become marks of our adoption. By suffering in the ways of righteousness, we are serving the interests of our Lord’s kingdom among men, and edifying the body of Christ<\/span>; and our trials will brighten our graces now and our crown at last. Therefore there is reason to count it all joy when trials and difficulties become our lot in the way of our duty.]<\/p>\n

“But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy<\/span>, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.”\u00a0 Acts 20:24<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

~ Rachel ~<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Happiness is caused by things that happen around me, and circumstances will mar it; but joy flows right on through trouble; joy flows on through the dark; joy flows in the night as well as in the day; joy flows all through persecution and opposition.” ~ D.L. Moody Reading in James chapter one this morning reminded me of one of my newest kitchen signs…from Hobby Lobby, of course!\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42 James 1:2-4 says, “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.” Counting everything that comes our way as JOYOUS is often easier said than done. I think that is why I liked the above sign so much – it reminds me that counting ALL things JOY\u00a0is a choice that we can indeed make if we so desire. If it were impossible, God’s Word would not exhort us to do so. Matthew Henry’s comments on this are: [One Christian grace to be exercised is joy: Count it all joy, (Jas 1:2). We must not sink into a sad and disconsolate frame of mind, which would make us faint under our trials; but must endeavour to keep our spirits dilated and enlarged, the better to take in a true sense of our case, and with greater advantage to set ourselves to make the best of it. Philosophy may instruct men to be calm under their troubles; but Christianity teaches them to be joyful, because such exercises proceed from love and not fury in God. In them we are conformable to Christ our head, and they become marks of our adoption. By suffering in the ways of righteousness, we are serving the interests of our Lord’s kingdom among men, and edifying the body of Christ; and our trials will brighten our graces now and our crown at last. Therefore there is reason to count it all joy when trials and difficulties become our lot in the way of our duty.] “But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.”\u00a0 Acts 20:24 ~ Rachel ~<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7,40,46,24,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-growing","category-joy","category-patience","category-quotes","category-trials"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s4o6C2-joy","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1701"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1701\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1703,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1701\/revisions\/1703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}