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The Non-Trivial Pursuit of Joy

My Meditation of Joy
 Filled with the urgent
Chasing the trivial
Driven by the emergent
Longing for the simple

Searching for sanity
Away from the broken
Within a spiritual reality 
Lies a desire unspoken

Seeking a salve for healing
A time to be set free
His Word is revealing
The fruit of joy birthed within me



 Escape does not bring joy.  Chasing happiness, entertainment and recreation cannot restore. Working harder.  Doing more.  Being more.  Having more or having it all is a lie once bought.  Looking within ourselves deadens, and without indebts.

Pursuing joy.  

Not from within or without.  Pursing joy from Him.  His joy!  Being with Him.  Seeking Him.  Acknowledging Him.  Delighting in Him and in His creation.  

Completely fulfilled and made whole in Him!

Sprios Zodhiates' defines joy in this way, "Blessed, possessing the favor of God, that state of being marked by fullness from God."

 Today is a great day to meditate on Joy.


  
 “Joy is the infallible sign of the presence of God.”
― Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

"Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let the sea resound, and all that is in it; let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them. 

Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy; they will sing before the LORD, for he comes, he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his truth." Psalm 96:11-13

 "The LORD is my strength and my shield; My heart trusts in Him, and I am helped; 

Therefore my heart exults, And with my song I shall thank Him. The LORD is their strength, And He is a saving defense to His anointed.…"Psalm 28:7


Resources to Consider:
Cognate: 5479 xará (another feminine noun from the root xar-, "extend favor, lean towards, be favorably disposed") – properly, the awareness (of God's) grace, favor; joy ("grace recognized").http://biblehub.com/greek/5479.htm

Spiros Zodhiates' Complete Word Study Dictionary (p. 937) gives a more comprehensive definition: Blessed, possessing the favor of God, that state of being marked by fullness from God. It indicates the state of the believer in Christ, . . . said of one who becomes a partaker of God's nature through faith in Christ. The believer is indwelt by the Holy Spirit because of Christ and as a result should be fully satisfied no matter the circumstances. Makarios differs from the word "happy" in that the person is happy who has good luck (from the root hap meaning luck as a favorable circumstance). To be makarios, blessed, is equivalent to having God's kingdom within one's heart. Aristotle contrasts makarios to endees, the needy one. Makarios is the one who is in the world yet independent of the world. His satisfaction comes from God and not from favorable circumstances. http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Library.sr/CT/PERSONAL/k/280/Fruit-of-Spirit-Joy.htm

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