This weeks promise: God promises to fill you with joy!
1 Thessalonians 1:6 And you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit,
This verse shows us that we can and often do feel this joy even when we're enduring much affliction. How can this be? As seems to be often in the case of God, He turns the world upside down on us! The joy He sends us actually helps us to endure hard times better then we could without it. His Joy is our secret weapon! How can the enemy possibly win when we're filled with that Holy Joy? He can't! God wins every time!
Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23. gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.
Note that this joy is also part of the fruit of the Spirit. The more centered and focused on the Lord we are, the more we will experience this Joy. These fruits, including joy, are things we should strive to have more of in our lives. Be aware that we can't make them happen. Only God can do that in us. When I say we should strive for more of them, I mean only that we should strive to be ever closer to the Lord. Then in turn we will experience more of this joy and the other fruits.
