A Prayer for Joy

“A Prayer for Joy”

Help me, O God,

To listen to what it is that makes my heart glad

And to follow where it leads.

May joy, not guilt,

Your voice, not the voices of others,

Your will, not my willfulness,

Be the guides that led me to my vocation.

Help me to unearth the passions of my heart

That lay burred in my youth.

And help me to go over that ground again and again

Until I can hold in my hands,

Hold and treasure,

Your calling on my life.

--Ken Gire, Windows of the Soul

Leveling the Field

But God forbid that I should glory, save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. Galatians 6:14

Joy

Joy

       Joy is a necessary part of the Christian life. Are you serving the Lord with joy? God intends for you to. I have thus far learned this principle most profoundly when the Lord directed me away from my childhood church of fifteen years to another church. What I experienced was such joy. Not just myself, but everyone was just so quietly, contentedly joyful. The worship you could just sense was coming from joyful hearts, the brothers and sisters greeted each other joyfully as the family of God—whether they knew you or not, the Word was preached with power and boldness yet you could see such joy in the preacher for his own salvation (it never left his sight like Paul). Are you joyful? Not happy in your flesh mind you, but about the Lord’s business, knowing deep down you are where you are supposed to be and doing what you are supposed to be and taking pleasure in doing the Lord’s will?

Selected Quotes

Quotes

“If falsehood is represented as truth for long enough, many will stand by it with their very lives.” – John Bevere, A Heart Ablaze

 

“For a time we are conscious of God’s attentions, then, when God begins to use us in His enterprises, we take on a pathetic look and talk of the trails and the difficulties, and all the time God is trying to make us do our duty as obscure people.” My Utmost for His Highest, May 1

 

“Many will confide to you their secret sorrows, but the last mark of intimacy is to confide secret joys. Have we let God tell us any of His joys, or are we telling God our secrets so continually that we leave no room for Him to talk to us?” My Utmost For His Highest, June 3

Daily Devotion from Ryan's devotional book series, Throughts

Thought 161

The Beauty of the Clouds

        Have you ever looked up and been amazed at the beauty of the clouds? Have you spent time trying to find clouds that looked like people or an object? The sky is amazing! God has given us this beauty to enjoy, yet we think of it less and less the busier we become. But one day an amazing thing is going to happen! Jesus is going to come back in these beautiful clouds!!

Daily Devotion from Ryan Marks's devotional series: Thoughts

Thought 152

Strengthening

     For the past several months I hadn’t really heard from the Lord or felt anything from Him. I don’t know why.  I did not have the joy and the excitement of praising God that I had experienced so vividly in the past. But today God brought me to a certain place in Scripture, and after I read those passages and prayed, thanked, and worshiped God from my heart I experienced His joy again. My very inmost being was strengthened as I felt that God had come near again.

      The Bible says, “But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” Isaiah 40:31 (KJV) Wow!  If you feel distant from God or discouraged, seek Him and patiently wait. Strengthening will come; either from the Holy Spirit directly or through people, circumstances, and many other things.

      Emotional experiences alone are not anything in comparison to the times that God touches your heart, your soul, and your life! No relationship, other than one with the Triune God of the universe, the CREATOR of Heaven and earth can give greater satisfaction, fulfillment, and assurance of purpose. Let’s praise Him right now!

I sing a psalm to God from my heart and I bid you to do the same:

O Lord hide not Your face from me again!

Strengthen me in the light of Your glory all my days.

May my strength and assurance rest in You and not the wisdom of myself or men.

O God of my fathers, O Lord God of the Founding Fathers,

Come heal the land I live in.

USE me as a beacon in this dry and thirsty land.

I need you Lord, do not depart from me. Always show Your faithfulness to me.

Guide me to teach and to reach people for You, O Lord.

Let You be my focus! May Your power spill out of my life.

Amen and I say it again, Lord, Amen. May the world rejoice in you.

Amen.

       Take a moment and sing or write a personal song of praise to the Lord. When I praise God, I have the strength to continue. If there was a key to the Christian lifes’ success, I believe it would be true worship (prayer and worship from the heart in song, thought, word, and deed), because the joy and strengthening that you then receive no man can take from you.

Daily Devotion from Ryan Marks book series: Thoughts

Thought 151

Be joyful in the Lord!

    Have you ever had an unexplainable joy come upon you, a joy form the Lord? It is a spiritual mountaintop experience. It is not just an emotion, it is a blessing from God. If you have never run in the joy of the Lord I pray that God will bless you with the gift of running in joy one day.

     Some people call this being “drunk in the Spirit,” but I do not really care what they call  it because I know that it is real.