Joy—Your Invincible Host Against Difficulties

When bombarded by the external accidents of life, it should be your core center of joy that sustains you. Is your joy an invincible barrier against difficulties?   

March’s Awakening, Day 12

Join the great company of those who make the barren places of life fruitful with kindness. Carry a vision of heaven in your hearts, and you shall make your name, your college, the world, correspond to that vision. Your success and happiness lie within you. External conditions are the accidents of life, its outer wrappings. The great enduring realities are love and service. Joy is the holy fire that keeps our purpose warm and our intelligence aglow. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties.

 —Helen Keller 

Seek joy in what you give not in what you get.

 —Author Unknown 

Fits of depression come over the most of us. Usually cheerful as we may be, we must at intervals be cast down. The strong are not always vigorous, the wise not always ready, the brave not always courageous, and the joyous not always happy.

 —Charles Spurgeon  

But may the righteous be glad and rejoice before God; may they be happy and joyful. Psalm 68:3 NIV 

            I would encourage you to read those words of Helen Keller again. Exceptionally powerful words coming from one who endured and overcame what most would believe impossible. Note that joy is the driving force of your purpose, and joy is your invincible host of protection and barrier against life’s difficulties. Joy at your core center enables you to persevere and overcome those external conditions of life. Kindness, love, and service are the realities of the outpouring of joy from your center. It all lies within you and yes—blaze the vision of heaven upon all that you do. Note also, that this life has normal periods of ups and downs, ebb and flow, times of great progress and times of needed rest. The Lord’s joy at your center will sustain you in strife, propel you to progress, and empower every success. It is the intangible quality that makes one great.