More about joy

I've settled on two Advent devotionals with daily readings. Joy is a theme for both.

Janet Denison wrote "Joy to Your World," a booklet I received after making a donation to the Denison Forum. I found John Piper's "Good News of Great Joy" among the Bible reading plans on the Bible App.*
 
Both are using Scriptures to present the ancient narrative, with commentary and questions to help me see what it means today.

Denison's writing helps me look deeper into the familiar accounts and ponder anew what it might have been like for Elizabeth, Zachariah, Mary, Joseph and the shepherds, among others. They rejoiced in the Lord and followed His guiding even when the way was not a path any of them would have expected. She highlights their faithful responses in ways that inspire me to want to also have a faithful response, even when it might seem God wants me to do something impossible.

Both authors also emphasize how experiencing the joy of the Lord is a result of knowing Him, believing in Him and stepping out in faith to act on His promises. It's not based on circumstances.

I want to make that connection. I think it may help explain what was missing from some of my past Christmases, when despite all the blessings I experienced and for which I was grateful, I was more aware of sadness than true joy.

I'm grateful for Advent studies that are helping me find the true source of joy.



* It's interesting to me that Denison is a Southern Baptist and Piper is a Reformed Baptist. This lifelong Methodist grew up thinking Baptists didn't observe liturgical seasons such as Advent, although in recent years I began to notice that seemed to have changed or be changing. I did a little research and discovered some Southern Baptist churches and members began observing Advent in the last half of the 1900s, likely to provide a structure for focusing on Jesus during a season of secular consumerism.