Deuteronomy 16:15 English Standard Version (ESV) For seven days you shall keep the feast to the Lord your God at the place that the Lord will choose, because the Lord your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you will be altogether joyful.

Deuteronomy 28:46-48 English Standard Version

46 They shall be a sign and a wonder against you and your offspring forever. 47 Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart, because of the abundance of all things, 48 therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger and thirst, in nakedness, and lacking everything. And he will put a yoke of iron on your neck until he has destroyed you.

These are the first two search results when we use a computer to search the words joy and Lord together.

This joy is one of attitude. God blesses us in the work of our hands.

Then in service to Him if our attitude is not one of gratitude, we find it displeases the Lord our God.

Perhaps this simple search of Joy is not the Joy of the Lord but it does tell us God blesses us so that we will have plenty to be grateful for. 

Any simple expression of that gratitude honors God. We give thanks at every meal. Or do we?

We prepare a big meal and in togetherness praise God for the blessings. If we get up from the football game on tv to get a snack, do we remember to count our blessings? Probably not. But then again we are not serving the Lord watching tv. Does that excuse us from blessing the snack?

Thanks be unto the Lord our God that we live in the age of grace and not under the Law of the Old Covenant.

I cannot help but wonder in service to our Lord if we do so with an attitude of gratefulness so that we might find joy in the work?

While this is all about our emotional attitude I do not find any satisfaction in this search that says I have found the Joy of the Lord.

Even though I have not found what I seek, I have to admit that attitude in service is important.

The search continues. What does the Lord have to say next?

Zechariah 14:9 English Standard Version (ESV) And the Lord will be king over all the earth. On that day the Lord will be one and his name one.

Here is BibleGateway’s verse of the day for June 29th.

Suddenly I thought “I’m ready. Do it!”

Sadly God’s purpose and plans are not subject to my wishes.

There are prophecies that have not been completed. That is speculative. How this church age plays out in relationship to this day in Zechariah is beyond me. That doesn’t influence my desire to see an end to all the injustices I see in this world. My sudden thought is full of judgment and desire for justice.

When we trust God we should not substitute His plans and purposes with our desires. We can pray about it and should, but we have to end those prayers with “Thy will be done.”

God will never give up His will because He is perfect in purpose and design. If He were not perfect in design, then it could be possible that I am not saved and I know with all my heart that I am saved.

I don’t blame others that get insecure about their salvation. It takes an enormous amount of trust and I have trust issues. That is me in my personal life and experiences. It isn’t spiritual, it is emotional. My desire for it all to be over is emotional.

When we study God’s Word we will see a number of emotional conditions that He wants us to give up in favor of our love for Him. Sadly loving God does not stop us from being emotional. It comes down to a matter of recognizing the source of our emotions, godly or worldly. God created us to be emotional people. God is love and being created in His image, we love.

But we didn’t begin loving perfectly as God loves. We always came up short. Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross showed us what God’s love can do. His love could take up residence within us in His abiding presence.

John 15:9-11 English Standard Version

9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

Is joy an emotion or something more?