One of the great Christmas hymns is “Joy to the World.” I love this great song. It has an upbeat tempo, a beautiful melody and the words are inspiring.
Joy to the world! The Lord is come Let earth receive her King!
Let every heart prepare Him room And heaven and nature sing
And heaven and nature sing And heaven, and heaven and nature sing
Joy to the world! the Savior reigns Let men their songs employ
While fields and floods Rocks, hills and plains
Repeat the sounding joy Repeat the sounding joy Repeat, repeat the sound in joy.
No more let sin and sorrow grow Nor thorns infest the ground
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found Far as the curse is found Far as, far as the curse is found
He rules the world with truth and grace And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness
And wonders of his love And wonders of his love And wonders and wonders of his love
Do you know there is a difference between happiness and joy? The Declaration of Independence enshrines three basic rights: the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We can pursue happiness but joy is not something you pursue. Joy is based, not on circumstances but on what we know to be true. Happiness can ebb and flow, here today and gone tomorrow. But joy is something established in a persons heart based on the surety of our beliefs. What are things we know?
Romans 6:6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.
Romans 6:8-10 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.
Romans 8:28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
2 Corinthians 5:1 For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
Galatians 2:15-16 We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; 16 yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
1 Thessalonians 1:4-5 For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, 5 because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.
1 John 3:2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.
1 John 3:14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers.
1 John 3:16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
1 John 4:13 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.
1 John 5:15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.
1 John 5:20 And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
These are some things we know and they are fixed as truth so we can have JOY. It is my prayer that this Christmas be a time filled with JOY for you and your family.