Ecclesiastes 9:7 NLT
'So go ahead. Eat your food with joy, and drink your wine with a happy heart, for God approves of this!'
My favourite dictionary defines joy as “the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one desires”. Scripture tells us that “the joy of the Lord is [our] strength” (Nehemiah 8:10). Life has a habit of crushing the joy out of us. Once our joy is gone we, like a squeezed lemon, are reduced to an empty skin. Our substance has gone; our principal ingredient lost.
Recently I discovered an online tool (thejoyprinciple.net) that promised to measure my joy. It was simple and immediate, as any online experience must be. It measured more than 16 yes/no questions where I perceived my state of happiness with family, friends, the world around me, and finally my possessions. I scored 95 per cent joyful. Not bad, the average being 68 per cent. I was encouraged since I had set the parameters high on family, low on friendship, medium on the world around me and very low on possessions. I believe it reflects well my level of joy. Yet, the standard for joy is not in reality measured by those four criteria. I hold my view of what I want from life by considering who I am and how close I want to get to God.
When I was younger, I was consumed with the need to obtain certain things. Now I am content with who I am and how I live. I cannot think of one thing I am seeking apart from deepening my friendship with God. That doesn’t mean that I am not subject to bouts of anxiety, but I’ve done a lot of work addressing the array of false hopes that offer joy but seriously fail to deliver in practice.
Most things we chase, even though they may glisten with attraction, will disappoint once secured. With God, we can live a full, free and happy life wherever we find ourselves. Each day I aim to approach each task with a joyful commitment, knowing that God is present and available to me in every moment.
QUESTION: What do you most desire so that your joy might be complete?
PRAYER: May I live today joyfully, knowing that each hour I can commune with you.

Released on 2 Mar 2020