{"id":3900,"date":"2014-07-29T06:00:30","date_gmt":"2014-07-29T13:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/devonline.us\/dailyevotional\/?p=3900"},"modified":"2014-07-28T13:14:09","modified_gmt":"2014-07-28T20:14:09","slug":"choose-joy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/choose-joy\/","title":{"rendered":"CHOOSE JOY!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Habakkuk 3:17-18<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: #c40000;\"><em>Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails<\/em><em>\u00a0<\/em><em>and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the <\/em><em>Lord<\/em><em>, I will be joyful in God my Savior.<\/em><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Why in the world would I choose a title like the one I have chosen for today? Isn\u2019t it natural that everyone would choose joy? Nope! You see, we usually associate joy with the <em>favorable<\/em> <strong>things<\/strong> that we encounter. I think it is appropriate to recall a poem I composed some time ago:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong><em>When all the world is bright and gay,<br \/>\n<\/em><\/strong><strong><em>When skies are blue, instead of gray,<br \/>\n<\/em><\/strong><strong><em>When health and wealth are close at hand,<br \/>\n<\/em><\/strong><strong><em>It does not take a lot of sand<br \/>\n<\/em><\/strong><strong><em>To sing and shout to beat the band.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong><em>BUT- &#8211; &#8211;<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong><em>When all around you turns to gray,<br \/>\n<\/em><\/strong><strong><em>When family and friends seem to slip away,<br \/>\n<\/em><\/strong><strong><em>This is now the time to take your stand!<br \/>\n<\/em><\/strong><strong><em>In faith reach out to God and take His hand!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Even in the midst of the <em>unfavorable<\/em> <strong>things<\/strong> we encounter, we need to choose to find our joy in the Lord. <strong>Things<\/strong> of this world will constantly change between good and bad, but when we choose joy in every circumstance, it opens the door to bless us as well as those around us. Choose Joy!<\/p>\n<p>May God richly bless you as you bless others by your words and actions!<\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8211; &#8211; &#8211; Pastor Cecil<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Habakkuk 3:17-18 Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails\u00a0and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-habakkuk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3900\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}