Being JoyFul in HOPE!

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      When I was reading about ‘Love' ,today in the morning,in Romans 12, I came across verse 12 and got stuck there;
“Be joyful in hope ,patient in affliction , faithful in prayer.”
This verse tell us to do three things that will help us attain or increase our peace.I tried studying the ‘Be joyful in hope’ part in detail. 
      Now ‘Hope’ is defined as a feeling of expectation that something will happen and it is usually associated with a positive expectation. Nobody hopes for a bad or negative thing to happen, atleast to themselves!
So this verse just simply means to be joyful in that expectation that there will be a light at the end of the tunnel; a Hope that no matter what your circumstances and situations are screaming and telling you today…you have a bright tomorrow!! 
We have faith in God and that faith leads us to a confidence and reliance i.e. a trust in God which produces hope and which in turn gives us an assurance for a bright tomorrow! 
Verses like: ‘We live by faith and not by sight’-2 corinthians 5:7 or ‘Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see’- Hebrews 11:1, help us with our hope in God. We see people around us doing evil  and prospering and those who stand for the right and the truth being punished  but we endure it (God helps us with endurance) in the hope of a Happy ending for us,i.e. eternity with God for us and hell for the evil and evil doers!
         And the bible tells us to ‘be joyful ‘in that hope. The emotion ‘Joy’ is different from the emotion ‘Happy’. Happiness is a state of mind while Joy is the state of the heart.
Happiness is associated with you getting something like a success or some material objects or an earthly experience. It is temporary and is based on outward circumstances i.e you can be happy about good food, good company or a good activity whereas Joy is a much stronger,deeper and lasting emotion .It is based on inward circumstances i.e. it is directly proportional to our inward peace and contentment which means we have the power to control our joy.  
Something doesn’t go our way and we are unhappy and upset about it but yet we can choose to stay calm,be at peace and have joy in our heart.
Being joyful is a fruit of the Spirit , so if you have the Spirit in you, you already have the ‘Joy’ fruit , you just have to exercise it on purpose!
Let us concentrate on Being JoyFul in HOPE!



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