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Hi Reader, In last week’s episode of You Were Made for This, no. 225, I talked about people who are a joy to be around, and how we can be one of these people ourself. Click here if you missed it or if you want to listen again. No sooner were the pixels etched into my onscreen show notes, than I discovered the next morning something new about being a joyful person. It’s found in Psalm 119 and starts with Joyful are people of integrity, who follow the instructions of the Lord.
Joyful are those who obey his laws and search for them with all their hearts.
The theme of joy coming from obedience to God’s law repeats itself several other times in the psalm. Then I read in Matthew 22 in the New Testament someone asked Jesus, “Which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
So connecting the dots between Psalm 119 and Matthew 22 shows us that we’ll be a joyful person when we obey God byloving him and other people. It seems to me this is a really helpful principle when we feel we’ve lost the joy in our life. I’ve heard people say things like, “I’ve lost my joy.” “It robbed me of my joy.” “It took my joy away.” When we feel like this I bet our joy will return when we love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind. And then love our neighbor as we naturally love ourselves. Yeah, I bet that will work. I’m going to give it a try. How about you? Until next time, I wish you all the joy that you can wish.* John Certalic
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