January 5, 2016 (Tuesday)
“I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart, down in my heart, down in my heart, I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart, down in my heart to stay.” These words were the first verse of a children’s chorus sung by thousands of people in the mid-20th century here in the good old U.S.A.
Do you have joy in your life? Will 2016 be a happy year for you? You can have joy. Your year will be happy if your priorities are in the right order. Here’s the right order:
Jesus
Others
Yourself
Joy can be yours:
• If Jesus has first place in your life.
(If Jesus has first place, you will do His will, you will love Him, and you will serve Him).
• If other people are important to you.
(If others are important to you, you will praise them, you will accept them as they are, and you will want the best for them).
• If you put less emphasis upon yourself and your own needs.
(Self-interest causes you to lose self-esteem, to have feelings of insecurity and creates doubts about God’s love for you).
JESUS
O soul, are you weary and troubled?
No light in the darkness you see?
There’s light for a look at the Savior,
And life more abundant and free!
Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.
OTHERS
Lord, help me live from day to day
In such a self-forgetful way
That even when I kneel to pray,
My prayer shall be for others.
Others, Lord, yes, others
Let this my motto be
Help me to live for others
That I might live for thee.
YOURSELF
O Love that wilt not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee;
I give thee back the life I owe,
That in thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.