The Joy of my Heart.

"Oh, come let us sing to the Lord;
let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! 
For the Lord is a great God,
and a great King above all gods."
~Psalm 95:1-3

"Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth!
Serve the LORD with gladness!
Come into his presence with singing!
Know that the LORD, he is God!
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
and his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him; bless his name!
For the LORD is good;
his steadfast love endures forever,
and his faithfulness to all generations."
~Psalm 100



The meaning of Katrina is "pure." And my middle name is Joy.
My name = pure joy.
The majority of the time, I don't feel like I live up to my name. I'm not one of those people who can be constantly happy all the time. When there's something I'm struggling with, it usually shows up in my attitude.

This theme of praising God is all throughout the Psalms. It's not just a quick, "Thanks God for everything" prayer that you shoot up once a day. It's a call to sing and dance with gladness and with fullness of heart because God provides everything for us. And we don't just sing half-heartedly, we sing loudly and with JOY. We are allowed to come into the presence of a great, mighty, holy God and we should do so with singing! This is a call to worship, and worship does not just take place once a week or when we're in a good mood. It's a way of living our lives, and even when struggles come our way, we can trust in the sovereignty of God in everything because he is a great God and the rock of our salvation. His love and faithfulness endure forever.

I can have pure joy. Even during struggles, when my flesh wants nothing else but to have a bad attitude. Because the Lord is good and his steadfast love endures forever.

This is why the web address for my blog is called "thejoyofmyheart."

Pray.

Today I was reading a book called "Operation World," and it was overwhelming. It's a 900+ page book that has information about what to pray about for every country in the world. I had no clue where to start when I picked it up, so I flipped to Guatemala since I recently visited there. One of the paragraphs jumped out at me:

"Children at risk:

The majority of children between ages 6 and 18 live in extreme poverty, with large numbers orphaned or from broken homes. Non-existent social support structures drive them to child labor or toward drugs, gangs, or the sex industry. Around 15,000 children live on the streets. Many documented cases exist of death squads murdering these unwanted 'nuisances.' A number of local and international ministries seek to help them; pray for real solutions to these desperate needs."

Our world is in need. The least we can do is pray.