Here was my answer: "Joy is a great pleasure but with it comes a great sense of stability and security no matter what is happening around us. "
The joy of the Lord never leaves us even while we are grieving, even when we "feel" like we cannot go on, we know we can because we have the inner joy and strength of Jesus Christ.
James 1:2-18 "2 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,
knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.
4 And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
5 But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
6 But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord,
8 being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
9 But the brother of humble circumstances is to glory in his high position;
10 and the rich man is to glory in his humiliation, because like flowering grass he will pass away.
11 For the sun rises with a scorching wind and withers the grass; and its flower falls off and the beauty of its appearance is destroyed; so too the rich man in the midst of his pursuits will fade away.
12 Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.
13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.
14 But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust.
15 Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.
16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.
17 Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.
18 In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures."
Every born again believer ought to have this joy that non-believers cannot begin to understand and believers cannot fully explain.
Trudi said this: "Leave behind your regrets and mistakes, Jesus is calling you to live for Him!"
God told us He forgets our sin when we repent. I believe this is so that we have no baggage to hold us back from boldly speaking the truth. We had to hear the truth before we repented, just as others need to hear it to become born again.
1 John 1:9
"9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
No one will be forgiven by just ignoring their past and hope it all just goes away. There must be a confession of sin and a desire to be changed by Christ.
2 Corinthians 5:16-18
16 Therefore from now on, we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer.
17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.
18 Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation,"
The world has been around for 6-8 thousand years according to God's history. Out of those years at the very end of days the United States has only been around as a nation from 1776 until now 2020.
Our nation has been a nation for less than 250 years, 244 to be exact.
In that time it appears that cultural Christianity has taken hold in these later days. The truth is that our country was founded on this same cultural Christianity that we see today only with a greater emphasis on the rules of the Bible without the dedication to Christ.
Born again believers have always been and always be a remnant in any part of the world.
Our laws were based on Christian principles but many of our people were dedicated to the rules more than to Christ. We know this because of the holidays that were readily accepted by most who say they were Christians.
We also know this because our nation was found on "freedom of religion" for all people. This has been its downfall. All religions have denied Christ and Christianity in its true form is not a "religion" it is a relationship with Christ.
Growing up in a Christian church in our country I never heard about a relationship or about the Holy Spirit. I heard about rules, standards, and appearances but never the power of the Holy Spirit. Yes, there are some who speak of Him but have perverted the working of the Holy Spirit to fit into their desire to have personal power over people and circumstances. They use the name of Christ as a magic wand to wave over a thing to get their own way.
Christians have not been evaluating their lives according to scripture to know the heart of God, but rather they have been evaluating their lives based on rules of decency and the mandates of the culture for appearances only.
25 years ago I asked a church-going young man if he was born again. His answer was shocking to me, he said; "I go to the Baptist church down the street."
This has been the concept for most churchgoers today, if they attend a church then they are Christian. The idea that Christ needs to change them into a new creation is not even on their radar.
Having seen the way people think in our day made me realize that they are not different from the cultural Christianity of our forefather's day.
The founders of our country came to America to be free, to live as they choose and to promote personal accomplishment and wealth. They added God to their desire to be free from tyranny.
The people of our country have not changed very much from the beginning, they have just become freer to sin more. When we place our emphasis on the government to afford us freedom then freedom becomes our god.
When a "concept of freedom" is our god then that concept will grow over time uncontrolled. Every generation moved further and further away from the founding father's idea of good government because it was not based on Christ but on personal freedom for every religion to dwell in the land without challenge.
All nations that promote and embrace every religion eventually falls. We are probably the nation that is dying the fastest of any nation in history. Perhaps because we claimed to be Christian so loudly and proudly that God is bringing us to our knees. Unless the nation as a whole repents of its pride it will be destroyed, we are well on the path to destruction now.
When nearly all we hear everywhere is "God bless America' as if God has an obligation to save us from the world, we know we deserve discipline. We are not more special from other nations. We have just had more "religious talk" without adherence to the Bible, but we have not been sold out to Christ.
Individuals within America need to repent to become born again. The whole nation will not repent, most people are stubborn. All you have to do to know this is to mention the standards of the Bible or rebuke someone for their sin and watch the anger that emerges.
Christians in churches hate to hear the word of God when it relates to them personally. They only want praise and happy words that make them feel good about themselves. There are many myths in the apostate church today. Many people who love their ungodly traditions more than they love Christ.
2 Timothy 4:2-4 "…2 Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and encourage with every form of patient instruction. 3 For the time will come when men will not tolerate sound doctrine, but with itching ears, they will gather around themselves teachers to suit their own desires. 4 So they will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.…"
Matthew 15:7-9 "…7 You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied correctly about you: 8 ‘These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. 9 They worship Me in vain; they teach as doctrine the precepts of men.’”…"
This has been the history of our country as a whole. Yes, there have been many Christian in this country but most Americans have been superficial and self-righteous desiring a cushy happy life more than they speak of Christ if they do at all.
If anyone is looking to a leader to save this country it will be in vain without substance. Most people now are believing their "feelings are facts." If they feel their leader is good then they will only listen to that leader's flattery and ignore the wicked things in that leader's life.
Proverbs 26:24-28
"Whoever hates disguises himself with his lips and harbors deceit in his heart; when he speaks graciously, believe him not, for there are seven abominations in his heart; though his hatred is covered with deception, his wickedness will be exposed in the assembly. Whoever digs a pit will fall into it, and a stone will come back on him who starts it rolling. A lying tongue hates its victims, and a flattering mouth works ruin."
Job 32:21-22
"I will not show partiality to any man or use flattery toward any person. For I do not know how to flatter, else my Maker would soon take me away."
Psalm 5:9
"For there is no truth in their mouth; their inmost self is destruction; their throat is an open grave; they flatter with their tongue."
