David Kizziah – my husband of almost two decades, and my pastor of about the same amount of time – shared a quote in a sermon once that has run through my mind at least a thousand times since :

“When our joy is in Christ, it is in a realm untouchable by criticism and circumstances.”

Sally Lloyd-Jones made a statement in a little book I was reading to our children the other day, and I keep thinking about it :

“God didn’t create us so He could get joy – He already had it. He created us so He could share it . . . When God says, ‘Glorify Me!’, He’s really saying, ‘Be filled with Joy!'”

Sara Hagerty wrote this in a monthly email I receive :

“Joy means … I am trusting, rested, leaning, hopeful. Joy means I am secure.”

K.J. Pugh, my brother and also a pastor, recently discussed in a sermon the connection between the size of our worldview as it relates to our capacity for joy. He said it much more eloquently, but here was the gist :

When our worldview is small, and we see ourselves at the center, our capacity for joy is also small – all the while our capacity for despair is great. Yet when we realize the world is far bigger than ourselves, we have a far greater capacity for joy, and despair diminishes.

Paul David Tripp wrote this in an Advent devotional that jumped off the page at me :

“Here’s what sin does. It causes each of us to place ourselves in the center of our worlds and make life all about us . . . Perhaps in ways we’re not conscious of, we have shrunk life down to the size of our own glory. Maybe it really is true that somehow, someway, sin makes us all glory thieves. We steal for ourselves what belongs to God. We put ourselves in God’s place. Perhaps life really is one big unending glory battle. It’s because we would never, ever win this battle on our own that Jesus came.”

One of my favorite verses of Scripture tells me that I have been shown “the path of life. In His presences is fullness of joy; at His right hand are pleasures forevermore!” Psalm 16:11

One of my favorite Christmas carols declares : “Joy to the world! The Lord has come! Let earth receive her King! Let every heart prepare Him room, and Heaven and nature sing!”

So, do all of these words cohesively collide to make one grand declaration about what joy truly is?

JOY, untouchable and full, is found in Christ Jesus alone and comes when I gladly receive His Kingly rule in my life, trusting in His authority, realizing He is the center of all things, making room for Him in every moment of my life as I rest securely in His presence and join with creation in praise that declares HIS GLORY!

Oh, for grace this Christmas to receive God’s gift of authentic JOY.