MERRY CHRISTMAS
Dear friends and family of Hosanna,
I wanted to take a moment to let you all know how wonderful it is to celebrate Jesus together. To be honest, I have no idea how many people receive the devotions or read them! I just know that I type them up and put them on the dashboard and proof and send them. Sometimes the proofing is not perfect, but I try.
I want to encourage you all to keep standing in the goodness of God. We are being bombarded by a great deal of nonsense, but we cannot allow that deter our faith. I was thinking recently about waiting upon the Lord. As I did, the idea of contending tied in. While we wait, we need to be contending for our faith. In other words, keep ourselves pumped up. We don’t wait worrying or fearing. We wait anticipating and praising. You get the picture.
I also have thought about, joy and happiness. Truly, the joy of the Lord is forever. Happiness is time to time. When something makes us happy, we like it. However, very few things (like none) keep us happy. In fact, people can be heard to say I remember when I was happy. Or that was a happy time. We can ultimately be discouraged by a happy time, because that time is gone.
With the storms we have recently experienced, there have been many rescues that created a great deal of happiness and gratitude. Unfortunately, even that gratitude can wear off. It does not keep us happy.
Joy on the other hand, is perfect and complete. Joy actually carries a by product of happiness. Joy is not dampened by storms or the products of storms. Joy is ours to use. Joy is a source of energy that overcomes unhappy times. We can always draw on the joy that God provides.
Like all things with God, Joy is made available, but it requires us to draw on it. God holds it out to us and says take this, it will help. The Holy Spirit reminds us of the joy that is right in front of us. When we draw on our joy, it produces lasting happiness.
Jesus provided us with complete joy. There will be many things that interrupt our happiness in life, but the Joy of the Lord breaks the yoke of unhappiness! We don’t have to stay in unhappiness. We can contend for our happiness with our bountiful supply of Joy.
While we are at it, we can add love, peace, long suffering, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. All of these work with and off of each other. I am pretty sure books have been written about doing just that.
So let me just say that it is truly a source of joy for me to send these out with prayers that they will bless and encourage people. I have very little to do with it, because all the inspiration and direction comes from our Lord. To Him be all glory. Pass the good news on wherever you may go. Feel free to share these letters if you are led to do so. God bless you all. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Hosanna and Vikki and me.