Friends - be encouraged and strengthened today, for Jesus is a God of abundant, immeasurable, overwhelming, ecstatic JOY! Don’t be burdened, weary or depressed! These surely are not fruits of the Holy Spirit living inside of you. Instead, let the light burden and easy yolk of the Lord Jesus Christ release you all of the unnecessary pressures, stresses and anxieties of life!  Let's continue to be filled and lifted with the joy of His love which comes from the realizing the nearness of His Presence (Psalm 16.11) I love this: Martin Luther said "if I’m not allowed to laugh in heaven, I don't want to go there" I really believe that our God, Yahweh, is a God of laughter, joy and delight! He delights in us delighting in Him! laughing is simply an overflow of the ridiculous joy always welling up inside your very spirit! So let it loose! You don't have to have something to laugh at to be able to laugh...Be so joyful that laughing just spontaneously happens as your enjoy and feast on the abundance of the House of God and enjoy eternal life now!

 Another great joy quote comes from CS Lewis who said that "joy is the serious business of heaven" This is dead on! I know it seems somewhat ironic because we don’t typically associate the words joy and serious together but God is 100% serious about seeing us walk in supernatural joy! He already paid the full price for you to freely walk in victorious joyful bliss when Jesus died on the cross and defeated death, depression, hopelessness and sorrow! Think about the unseen reality of Heaven now (where there is not an ounce of pain, crying or mourning - Revelation 21.4) and let that overtake the reality that you see daily, and let that overwhelm you now!  Wherever Jesus is, he brings supernatural, intoxicating and childlike joy! Let us not be so overly serious that we fail to encounter the God of pure joy, delight and laughter! Quit asking God to give you joy and go ahead and start walking in it because he's already freely released his joy to you forever by putting His Spirit in you which is the actual manifestation of every good part of Jesus!

Lastly, let what Isaiah prophesied lift you, fill you and encourage you to walk in freedom and joy for the rest of your life in Jesus' name:

“Everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.”  (Isaiah 51.11)

 let it be so.