Hearts United Ministry
August 10, 2024
Speaker: Grace Scarlett
Thank you, Grace Scarlett, for sharing your testimony with us! We were all greatly blessed by your testimony overcoming obstacles and finding joy. Thank you for exhorting us to share the Good News of the Gospel and to emulate Jesus more and more and to overcome the obstacles in our lives through joy!
“So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world. You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with glorious, inexpressible joy.” (1 Peter 1:6-8)
The Benefits of Joy:
We experience joy when we learn to trust – Anxiety weighs us down and depletes our joy. As we learn to trust God, we’ll experience joy that leads to peace. Only in God do we find true love, joy, and peace.
Joy Brings Blessings. A merry heart doeth good like medicine. (Proverbs 17:22).
Joy is found in the Presence of the Lord – In His presence is fullness of joy – “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Proverbs 16:11). In God’s presence, there is fullness of joy; eternal pleasures—pleasures that will never go flat or stale—that are found in God.
The joy of the Lord is our strength. (Nehemiah 8:20). Joy brings Trust for the Future.
The Lord is my strength and my shield;
My heart trusts in Him, and I am helped;
Therefore my heart exults,
And with my song I shall thank Him.
Psalm 28:7
You have turned for me my mourning into dancing;
You have loosed my sackcloth and girded me with gladness,
Psalm 30:11
Hearts United Women's Ministry 