Jealous of JOY

Food for thought – when we get our driver’s license we don’t just keep it in our back pockets, we pull it out and demonstrate this ability and gift we have received.
Outward expression of an inward faith.
People use this phrase to describe a demonstration through water baptism. But why don’t we do it in every aspect of our walk with Christ?
Is it because we are naturally prone to being stiff-necked and unwilling to be vulnerable and submit to God? As my family were all discussing, the consensus we all came to was the root of all sin, pride and contempt.

Lift up your hands, Praise The Lord YOU Full of JOY!

“Praise the Lord, all you servants of the Lord
    who minister by night in the house of the Lord.
² Lift up your hands in the sanctuary
    and praise the Lord.

³ May the Lord bless you from Zion,
    he who is the Maker of heaven and earth.” Psalm 134:1-3

Stay the course. Resist the Resistance of the enemy who hates JOY!
The Joy of The Lord is my Strength.

Sometimes I put clips inside my journal entries: Here’s one I just came across that reminded me of our rebellious nature even towards beautiful things. I call it, “Jealous of Joy”
It’s a real thing that comes out of a heart unchecked, a naturally rebellious heart. We must resist this and push through the contempt. God is Glorious. There’s no need to be sorry about JOY. Submit to God, Resist the devil and he will flee.
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1HYgNvYzFm/?mibextid=D5vuiz

John 10:10 ESV
[10] The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. What is on his agenda to steal, kill and destroy? All of God’s Fruits! One of which JOY!

It’s like we have to have a tangible un wellness in order for Christ to crack thru the delusion of our soul that we don’t need Him and JOY can’t really be permanent. So He brings the Truth about through despair, sorrow, pain. I wish it wasn’t so, but this is the reality of our rebellion against God. When we start singing Lord I need you oh I need you every hour I need you, we begin loving The One Who created us to need Him. What a precious Gift of Faith. JOY then starts bubbling up and out, the Christian can have JOY all the while sharing sadness over sin or hurt. Because of Jesus, One doesn’t negate the other but rather it reveals The Source of JOY!

 Here is a passage of scripture in 2 Samuel 6:16 clearly displaying God’s people praising Jesus with others Jealous of JOY.

“As the ark of the Lord was entering the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, she despised him in her heart.”

and another passage in Luke 19:37-40
As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” [39] And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”

The theme of scripture remains the same. Our hearts are deceitful above all things who can understand it. The Love of God is so provocative and merciful – that even while I was still a sinner, God said Yes, I’ll Come for him and her. Thank you Lord for giving me a new heart that is no longer jealous of JOY but exults In YOU, MY JOY.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRH33422Nyg “Our God is JOY”

Jealous of JOY doesn’t begin in the garden of Gethsemane
It begins in the heart way before then. Back to The battle in the Heavenly Realm when an angel and his followers were Jealous of JOY.

And we see it here even on Palm Sunday. No one likes to discuss this though. Pastors continue preaching about everyone saying Hosanna but really what is going on in the hearts of men?

Jealous of JOY?!
God is So Good! He knows everything and He still went! Amazing Grace!!!

I remember the first time I can remember that I was jealous of JOY. It’s was at First Baptist Church in 2012 when I walked in to my first Bible Study and everyone seemed to have “no secrets”. I was jealous of what seemed like natural purity, freedom, and JOY. I had no understanding yet of The Grace of God. My hidden sinful past kept me from receiving JOY, so instead I was Jealous of it.

Then only a couple years later I was leading a table group and someone spoke up and said, “Rachel, if we were all just full of JOY like you”. I was taken aback but it pierced my heart and brought me back to that place of guilt, when I thought the same thing but never said it out loud. I new The JOY was unspeakable and hard to articulate fully since I had a newfound Freedom In Jesus.

Then continuing in my walk In Christ, I was tested and tried in this very thing “would I Rejoice In All Circumstances”
Would I resist the devil’s snare and his countenance that hates anything about God?
(Singing, Testifying, Praying, the whole 9) Would I let others jealousy of JOY keep me from The JOY of The Lord. I fought in prayer hard, asking God to purify my heart and to let me be as gold through His Refiners Fire, recognizing that unless God poured out His JOY on me, I would die. So I endured by God’s Amazing Grace.
But this is not a new thing. God demonstrates this in the garden of Eden. The devil, jealous of The JOY in God’s people, lurking, seeking a way to destroy it. And then God’s people, falling into the trap of sin, jealous and thought they were missing out on something God was holding back from them. So instead of receiving JOY, they became jealous of it. All throughout scripture God reveals hearts full of jealousy. The prodigal son story is another one. The son who had “done all the right things” could not be full of JOY at his brother’s return, He was not concerned about his brother’s salvation and act of repentance and wanted no part in his returning back to God.

Just so, I tell you, there will be more JOY in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who need no repentance. Luke 15:7

Therefore, repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the Presence of the Lord; Acts 3:19

JOYfully His,