Joy Can Be Lost

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Our son and his wife are jumping for joy at their daughter's trampoline birthday party.
I'm not jumping yet, with this back issue, but I've got my joy back!

May 12
As I shared yesterday I felt disconnected from God. He hadn't gone anywhere, I had.  He did the most amazing things Tuesday.  (Okay, He does amazing things everyday, I just fail to acknowledge them.)  
I decided to go for a pedicure, mostly because I wanted to sit in the massage chair and see if it would loosen up my back. I started to call a girlfriend to join me, but then just headed up on my own knowing I didn't need to unload my problems on her. 

The place was packed, but I got to sit in one of the chairs for 30 minutes before the pedicure which was perfect. I opened Jesus Calling  on my phone and there was God!!!!  I keep telling you, when we get alone with God and His Word he shows up!  Here's what Sarah Young had written:

"Do not resist or run from the difficulties in your life. These problems are not random mistakes; they are hand-tailored blessings designed for your benefit and growth.  Embrace all the circumstances that I allow in your life, trusting Me to bring good out of them. View problems as opportunities to rely more fully on Me.  When you start to feel stressed, let those feelings alert you to your need for Me.  Thus, your needs become doorways to deep dependence on Me and increasing intimacy between us. Although self-sufficiency is acclaimed by the world, reliance on Me produces abundant living in My kingdom.  Thank Me for the difficulties in your life, since they provide protection from the idolatry of self-reliance."

Can you believe that!!!!! Spot on.

"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." John 15:5

"We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia.  We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life.  Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death.  But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raised the dead."  2 Corinthians 1:8-9

"Always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."
Ephesians 5:20

Closing my phone I noticed the shop door open and in walked my girlfriend!!!!  We had not talked in a week and NEVER discussed getting pedicures together.  It was as if God had rewarded me for coming to Him first.  It gets better.  Arriving home I noticed I had a message from an out of town friend on our answering machine saying she needed advice.
Calling her and asking how she was, she replied, "Not in a very good place."  She laid out before me a similar scenario that I had laid out for you yesterday on Boojoyful and she even said, "I've lost my joy!"  God made me regurgitate what I had just learned!!!!  We prayed together and concluded with the God given wisdom that our joy can not be in external circumstances or in the lives of others...our joy must be in the Lord!

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