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A WOMAN’S JOURNEY WITH GOD

Focus Verse: "My Father, You are the Lord my God. I desire to love You, to listen to Your voice, and hold fast to You, for You, Lord, are my life". Deuteronomy 30:20

"An Amazing Walk in Joy"
Bible Study #3

Study Text: "You have shown me the path to life, and You make me glad by being near to me. Sitting at Your right side, I will always be joyful". Psalm 16:11 CEV

Introduction: April 10, 1997 was a "day of celebration". It was my last chemotherapy treatment; number 36 covering a ten month period of time. Throughout that day, flowers and balloons were delivered to our home, phone calls from family and friends were answered and there was a lot of dancing going on…(not by me on that specific day), by those who loved me and prayed me through this difficult challenge. One of my many dear girlfriends gave me a book by Luci Swindoll, You Bring the Confetti…God Brings the Joy. What a precious gift it was! I savor the lessons learned from this book eleven years later. Someone has said, "Joy is the most infallible sign of the presence of God". My own experience is proof of the truth of that statement.

A GFK Roper Affairs and Media poll taken in recent months revealed that for 67 percent of the women polled, happiness ranked as "one of the most important aspects of their health". Scripture affirms this; "A merry heart does good, like medicine" (Proverbs 17:22a NKJV).

Joy and happiness, however, are very different emotions. Happiness is based on luck and good fortune. Joy is a vivid emotion of pleasure. Happiness depends on circumstance; joy, on our emotional and spiritual well-being.

How can our journey be an Amazing Walk in Joy?

God is Our Source of Joy
"I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy" (Psalm 43:4a NKJV)

God Himself is a primary source of our joy. A literal translation would read "my exuberant God" (The Message). Joy is God’s basic character. Joy is His eternal destiny. And God’s intent was that His creation would mirror His joy. As products of God’s creation, creatures made in His image, we are to reflect God’s ardent joy in life.

This is why the Bible speaks not just about our need for joy in general, but a practical kind of joy that characterizes God. God became flesh in the person of His Son Jesus Christ (John 1:14), who is the "Joy-Bringer"! After teaching on the need for obedience, Jesus told His friends that His aim was that they should be filled with joy, but not just any kind of joy: "I have told you this so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow" (John 15:11 NLT). The joy of God Almighty, constant and reliable and all encompassing, becomes my own joy. Complete…Total…Full Joy!

God’s salvation is a great reason for joy. The testimony of believers on how they came to Christ is always a story told joyfully. With gratitude we reflect upon the great price God paid to obtain our salvation through His Son’s death on the cross and our joy is renewed.

C.S. Lewis, author of Surprised By Joy, said, "Joy is the serious business of Heaven."

The prophet Isaiah could not contain his joy when he thought about all that God had done for him. "I will sing for joy in God, explode in praise from deep in my soul! He dressed me up in a suit of salvation; He outfitted me in a robe of righteousness" (Isaiah 61:10 The Message).

When we invite Jesus into our life, we become a child in His forever family, forgiven and assured of life eternal. He lays before us His plan for our life, which He calls "the abundant life." Jesus Himself said, "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you and that your joy may be full" (John 15: 7, 11 NKJV).

Quote: "Joy" is the irrepressible buoyancy you feel when you have been forgiven." (unknown)

Ponder: The gift of constant joy is mine as I allow Jesus to remain at the control center of my life. My daily prayer must be, "Lord Jesus, please help me to walk in Your perfect plan today."

"For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope" (Jeremiah 29:11 NLT).

God’s promises bring great joy. In my home, as a child and then as an adult, there has always been a "promise box". Sometimes the promise cards were in a small plastic loaf of bread, sometimes in an acrylic box and presently they are on an easel stand on a table. What a bottomless reservoir of joy we find at any moment by simply reading His Word and believing His promises. God has a promise for His children every single day. An "amazing walk in joy" is a "promise walk". "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are!" (1John 3:1 NIV). What a joy filled promise!

Ponder: If I were to place promises from God’s Word in strategic places in my home, read them and treasure them in my heart, I believe my spiritual, mental and emotional health would be strengthened. "Your Word I have hidden in my heart that I might not sin against You" (Psalm 119:11 NKJV).

Our future in Christ brings great joy. What do followers of Christ have to look forward to? A future that holds not death, but everlasting life in heaven. Our study text describes what that future will be like in the presence of God: "You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of your presence and the pleasures of living with You forever" (Psalm 16:11 NLT). No matter what we are facing here and now on this earth, we can look forward with great anticipation and assurance to our future home with God in heaven and experience deep joy along the way.

There is no secret formula for having a heart full of gladness and joy. It comes naturally as we learn to know and trust God. Joy has everything to do with your outlook. As you understand and embrace God’s promises, as you put your hope in what is yet to come, a deep inner joy that you can’t explain fills you up.

Until then my heart will go on singing, Until then with joy I’ll carry on.

Until the day my eyes behold the city, Until the day God calls me home.

Stuart Hamblen

Circumstances Do Not Determine Our Joy
Psalm 118 is a Psalm of thanks to the Lord. Verse 24 is a prayer to offer every morning: "This is the day the Lord has made; I will rejoice and be glad in it." Verses 28 and 29 are a prayer to offer at the close of every day: "You are my God and I will praise You; You are my God, I will exalt You. Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever."

The Psalmist doesn’t say, "How happy I was yesterday – it was God’s day!" Nor does he say, "I’ll just hang in there today and endure whatever comes because tomorrow will be a great day!" He says "this day…in the midst of the circumstances of my life, with all its faults, failings, sorrows and disappointments…is a day given to me by my loving Father". Joy is believing that no matter what happens I can proclaim with confidence, "God is with me. I will rejoice!"

Ponder: As dearly loved children of God, we are chosen for joy. However hard the Christian way may be, it is both in the traveling and in the goal, the way of joy. There is always joy in doing the right thing. The Christian is the person of joy. A gloomy Christian in a contradiction in terms, and nothing in all religious history has done Christianity more harm than its connection with black clothes and long faces. It is true that the Christian in a sinner, but he is a redeemed sinner, and therein lies the joy. How can any man fail to be happy when he walks the ways of life with Jesus? (William Barclay)

Choose Joy
We choose joy when we decide to fix our focus on God – not on gloom; on the eternal – not the temporal. We experience the joy of the Lord when we go to Him and find our joy in Him. True joy – spiritual joy – is found only when we choose the things of God. When we ask God to keep us walking with and abiding in Him, we choose joy. He gives us grace in our times of need and we are filled with His joy.

It has been said that true spiritual joy shines brightest against the darkness of trials, tragedy, and testing! Friends of Mother Teresa say that instead of being overwhelmed by the suffering around her, she fairly glows with joy as she goes about her ministry of mercy. One of the English officers imprisoned at Flossenburg with Dietrich Bonhoeffer said of him, "Bonhoeffer always seemed to me to spread an atmosphere of happiness and joy over the least incident and profound gratitude for the mere fact that he was alive."

Supernatural joy comes to those who have devoted their lives to something greater than personal happiness; saints and martyrs and ordinary people like us. One test of authentic joy is its compatibility with pain. Joy in this world is always joy "in spite of" something. Norma Jean was a beautiful, vibrant Christian woman with terminal cancer. She was blessed with a devoted husband and three adoring children. Her life was a testimony of "abiding joy" in the midst of long treatment sessions and failing strength. Her last days on this side of heaven were spent inviting young people to her bedside to speak of her love for her Lord and His joy. She did not want her illness and early death to be a hindrance to the faith of the youth she mentored. Norma Jean chose joy! She knew that behind all that changes and can change here on earth, there is one unchangeable joy….God is! Nothing changes Him. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever, (Hebrews 13:8) and in Him is no variableness, neither shadow of turning (James 1:17). And while He is, His children will be cared for and will rejoice.

His joy is also refreshing. The joy of the Lord is your strength" (Nehemiah 8:10 NIV). There is an infectiousness about the heart and life of a joyful woman. The joy she has is a result of her choice to grow in the Lord and it shines forth. Everyone close to her receives something from the fullness of her life. She has spent time with God and been filled by Him, so that when she’s in public, she can’t help but share her love of Jesus. She can’t help but share the joy of knowing Him and walking with Him. He has filled her heart to overflowing, enabling her to offer a ministry of refreshment to other people. Real joy comes from time spent alone with the Lord.

Robin Roberts, co-anchor on Good Morning America, shared recently that one of her favorite things is the devotional book Streams in the Desert. She has vivid memories of Grandma Sally reading daily from this book. When she was in high school, her mother gave her and her siblings their own copy. Even today, they remain faithful in their commitment to reading the same passage each morning, though they are miles apart. After Grandma Sally died, Robin received her copy of the book with her handwritten notes in the margins. Robin commented, "I treasure seeing her handwriting. It’s so calming to read her simple little reflections, tucked in the corners of the pages. They are powerful." A moment of supernatural joy followed as Robin looked directly into the eyes of Diane, Chris and Sam and said, "And I have a copy for you. I invite you to read a page each day." Robin’s life is an amazing walk in joy for she has found her strength in her personal Lord.

Ponder: There is no easy formula for appropriating joy. Joy happens in us as God restores us, teaching us to abide in Him as He works in and through us. Joy is not something that you can buy. You can’t get it from a book or at a conference. You can’t go out and work on joy. We are called to rest in the One who is joy. Without Him there is no joy! (Sheila Walsh) "Just as you received Christ, so go on living in Him – in simple faith. Grow out of Him as a plant grows out of the soil it is planted in, becoming more and more sure of the faith as you were taught it, and your lives will overflow with joy and thankfulness" (Colossians 2: 6-7 Phillips).

When we choose joy, we live a life of praise. "I will be glad, yes, filled with joy because of You. I will sing Your praises, O Lord God" (Psalm 9:2 TLB). When life is good, praise and thanksgiving flow automatically from our heart and lips. But when life turns bleak, thanksgiving and praise don’t flow quite so easily. We must deliberately choose to follow God’s advice and "in everything give thanks, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus" (1 Thessalonians 5:18). When we don’t feel like praising the Lord or thanking Him, we do what God says. In making that effort we make our praise a sacrifice. "With Jesus’ help, let us continually offer our sacrifice of praise to God by proclaiming the glory of His name" (Hebrews 13:15 NLT). Choosing to look beyond our circumstance makes our praise to God sacrificial and we find the Spirit’s joy magnified in our life. Amazing! It’s difficult to explain but it happens… Praise gives birth to joy!

April Study
A Woman's Journey With God
An Amazing Walk in Peace

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