Joy-Glow!!

Have you ever know someone that just always had a glow about them. They might not fit the beauty standards of today but there was a joy about their appearance-contentment, peace, happiness-they just glow! Joy-glow! That's my goal. It's not going to happen by losing weight, going to a spa, or by wearing a certain type of make-up. It only comes from within-its internal. Ask any of those people that you know who seem to just glow and they will tell you "it come from knowing Christ". They don't just know Him. They really know Him! They live constantly in His presence, seeking Him, praying to Him, loving Him.
I quote from today's devotional from the Blackaby's book in 'Experiencing Gods Day-By-Day":

"If there is anything that ought to characterize the life of a Christian, it is joy!...Don't deny yourself that which is your birthright as a child of God. Don't be satisfied with a joyless life. There ought to be in every Christian a deep, settled fullness of the joy of Christ that no circumstance of life can dispel. This comes when you allow the Holy Spirit to express Himself in your life...this joy is unlike any happiness that is produced by the world. It fills you and permeates everything you do.

Jesus did not pray that you would merely be happy of even that you would escape grief. He prayed that you would have the same joy that the Father had given Him; a divine joy, a joy that comes from a deep and unwavering relationship with the Father. It is a joy that is grounded so firmly in a relationship with God that no change in circumstances could shake it. This is the kind of joy that Christ is praying will be in you."

That the kind of glow I am talking about-that I am seeking. Then another reading from Beth Moore's 'Praying God's Word Day-By-Day' reminded me that if I look into the mirror and I don't see that joy, that spiritual glow, I need to examine my heart and see what might be infiltrating my joy!!

Search me, O God, and know my heart;

test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,

and lead me in the way everlasting.

~Psalm 139: 23-34

When Stephen was under persecution, in Acts 6:15 Luke writes "they saw that his face was like the face of an angel". I don't think I will have the face of an angel, nor will I ever-I think that is reserved for the faces of those new born babies!! Luke here is referencing Stephens joy. His glow came from the joy of the Holy Spirit. A joy that glows off an individual in the good times and the bad times. That's is what I hope to be rewarded with as I seek Him more, seek to love Him more and strive to serve Him more.

May you find His joy in your weekend!!

In His Graces~Pamela