Joy

Sometimes I feel as I need a whole year on the topic of "joy"!  Maybe that will be good for 2011....

Joy: as explained by Andrew Murray in "The True Vine":
(John 15:11)
"That my joy may be in you. -  We are to have Christ's own joy in us. And what is Christ's own joy? There is no joy like love. There is no joy but love. Christ had just spoken of the Father's love and His own abiding in it and of His having loved us with that same love. His joy is nothing but the joy of love, of being loved and of loving. It was the joy of receiving His Father's love and abiding in it, and then the joy of passing on that love and pouring it out on sinners. It is this joy He wants us to share: the joy of being loved of the Father and of Him; the joy in our turn of loving and living for those around us. This is just he joy of being truly branches: abiding in His love and then giving up ourselves in love to bear fruit for others. Let us accept His life, as He gives it in us as the Vine; His joy will be ours: the joy of abiding in His love, the joy of loving like Him, of loving with His love."

So many times I look around me to find joy.  And then I look inside me (as told to do by the world) to find joy.  Neither provide the true joy!  Only looking to Christ will I find joy - contentment in my circumstances.  How can I be content in Christ? By realizing that He loves me and the Father loves me as well.