Joy

I have been thinking a lot about joy today.
I started thinking about it during worship at church. We were singing Tear down the Walls by Hillsong and I felt led to read Deuteronomy 10. It talks about how we are called to live and who God is. . It's a wonderful passage. As I read it, I felt overwhelmed with joy. It was as if the more I read about who God is and let that fill me, the more excited and uplifted I felt.
Joy is not a feeling.
Joy is deep.
Joy is not uncertain.
Joy comes from complete trust.
I have joy in my life when I fully trust and surrender to my Father. When I slowly take my life back into my own hands, that's when I waver in my faith. Sometimes it seems completely crazy to 'surrender' my life to a spiritual entity that I have never seen. But honestly, I have found it safer that way. When I control my life, I crash. Every time. The times in my life when I have fully trusted God with my life were the safest times. Those times are marked unmistakably with joy.
This summer started off a little rocky for me. I let fear of what could happen dictate what did happen. I didn't trust God and I lost joy. God delights in us and wants us to experience the joy that comes from intimacy with him. I'm learning that daily. No matter what goes on in my life, there can be joy because, in the words of Moses, 'the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigners residing among you...He is your praise; he is your God, who performed for you those great and awesome wonders.'
God is love. God's word is truth. and from the truth comes certainty. and in that certainty is unwavering joy.
For this God is our God for ever and ever; he will be our guide even to the end. Ps 48:14