Let’s have a contest! How many of you think it is important to be happy? How many of you think it is important to have joy? How many of you remember a cartoon song by the above name from the 1990s? I think the cartoon was called Ren and Stimpy and I honestly do not know why I remembered that bit of trivia! (I digress…)
Where happiness and joy are concerned, how many of us desire both? Is there a difference between the words?
Happy by definition is: “Feeling or showing pleasure or contentment.”
Joy by definition is: “A feeling of great pleasure and happiness.”
Well now… the online dictionary I used seems to define them similarly, but a deeper look at word choices hints at something greater happening in the word joy. And rightly so, as the Bible tells us about joy in several locations. I read on a website called CONNECTUS that scripture speaks of joy 214 times throughout the pages.
Romans 15:13
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.
James 1:2
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds.
Galatians 5:22
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness.
Of the two–perhaps we will chose JOY!
spiritandsoul.net 
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