Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of Monday Meditations. To start the week off right,

the phrase that we're going to be meditating on is pure joy. Merriam Webster defines joy as a state

of happiness, or the emotion evoked by well-being success, or good fortune by the prospect of possessing what one desires.

Now, by worldly standards, then, joy and happiness are one and the same.

They are dependent on feelings, well-being, success, and good fortune.

And all these things are temporal.

They're fleeting.

They're fickle, as we know.

And we live in a self-centered culture

where personal happiness and personal fulfillment are literally the prize for so many people.

But because we know happiness is based on impermanent things, this earthly pursuit of happiness

will never satisfy.

It will never be more than an unattainable or momentary pleasure.

Now as Christians, we look beyond the dictionary, thankfully, straight to God's living word.

And what we find is that there's a significant difference between happiness and joy.

And it has been said that happiness depends on happenings, but joy depends on Christ.

Oswald Chambers put it like this.

Happiness depends on what happens.

Joy does not.

I love that quote.

Biblical joy is a gift believers receive by the power of the

Holy Spirit. And even Paul writes in Galatians chapter 5 that the fruit of the spirit is love.

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