This month’s focus is on the Joy in Christ. The world’s concept of joy is being exceedingly happy. We are told that the greatest pleasure in life comes from the pursuit of happiness. This is a man made concept; the Bible never tells us that Jesus wants us to do what makes us happy or that following him will bring us happiness and prosperity. Instead, Jesus tells us that the world will hate us as it hated him first. (John 15:18-19)

James teaches us to count it all joy, when we meet trials of various kinds, for we know that the testing of our faith produces steadfastness. (James 1:2-3) Unlike happiness, joy is not a fleeting emotion dependent on circumstances. Joy does not comes from within, but from the One who is seated above. Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2) When we have that exceeding joy that comes from Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross for the forgiveness of our wrongdoings and giving us the hope of eternal life with him in heaven, no one or no circumstance can steal that joy away from us because it is based on an unchanging promise.

We can spend our whole lives in the pursuit of happiness, but it will be an endless pursuit. In order to find joy in any part of our life, we must first seek the creator of joy. We will find peace and hope to get through anything this life might throw at us when we have the joy that Jesus gives to all that give up the pursuit of creating their own happiness and follow Him.