Jeremiah was a bullfrog. Now there’s an opening line to a song that’s hard to forget. Back in the day, we all sang along “joy to the fishes in the deep blue sea, joy to you and me.”
There’s another very popular song entitled Joy to the World that gives me a better sense of what joy is all about for Christians. One of the lyrics that most don’t have memorized is “He comes to make His blessings flow, Far as the curse is found”.
Part of the liturgy in the Catholic church I attended as a young man said, Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again. Dying You destroyed our death, rising You restored our life, Christ Jesus come in glory.
This is why I’m joyful. Jesus did for me what I couldn’t do for myself, provided a way of cleansing and forgiveness of sin, restoring my fellowship with God and giving me a hope and a future. That truth opens the way for me to fully enjoy the people in my life, forgiving as I’ve been forgiven, and the many circumstances that used to derail me. It’s an eternal perspective.
1 Thessalonians 5:16 Always be joyful.
First Love - The Way of Jesus 