Joy in the Journey

     What a terrible blogger I am!!  I maybe a twice a year blogger, not a daily or weekly blogger.  But, I think I'm finally getting around to it again. 

     Why don't I blog more?  Well, I usually think I don't have anything to say that anyone would spend their time on, no little ones living in my household, and then there's the time factor.  So why blog today because none of these things have changed?  I want to write about this journey of life I'm on and the things God is teaching me on this journey.

     One, He's teaching me that He is my joy.  I have spent a year reading and journaling from Hab. 3:17-19.  The Lord won't let me leave this place.  I find those scriptures everywhere I look-in my devotions and it seems in every book I'm reading.  The Lord is shouting these words to me saying, "Your joy is found in living a life of praise to me, not in circumstances, situations, people, or plans. 

     Two.  I began this year making a list of 1000 blessings.  I read Ann Voscamp's book in December and the Lord really laid on my heart to write down my daily blessings.  Some days it was an easy task, some days very hard.  But I kept going.  It took me from Jan. 1 to Oct. 2 to write down 1000 blessings but I arrived at that point on Sunday morning and God was there.  He flooded my soul with rejoicing in a way that I have not known.  I wrote this verse down because it expresses how I felt on Sunday morning.  Rom. 15:13 "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow."  What a powerful verse this is. 

     Three. God is reminding me of a goal I wrote in the fly leaf of my Bible when I was a young mother.  A godly woman had adopted it for her goal and it spoke to my heart then and now.  This is what it said:  " My goal is God Himself.  Not joy or peace or any other blessing.  But Himself - my God."  Today, I want to recommit myself to just knowing Him.  Because "in His presence is fullness of joy."