Thorns, Joy Stealers?

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“May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.”
‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭1:3‬ ‭NLT‬‬
https://www.bible.com/116/1co.1.3.nlt

Roses, beautiful to the eyes. Wonderful fresh scent to the nose. The pedals are soft to the touch. Meaningful, romance, friendship, love, peace. But the thorns hurt. Grab a rose by the stem and you’ll forget all about the beauty. The only thing remaining would be the pain.
At this moment, this instance, for this blog, I’m relating roses to joy. Over and over in my devotions, joy is the subject. When listening to the radio, the subject of joy continues to rise as the topic. And when I see a rose, an arrangement of roses, or roses of any kind, joy fills my being, my soul. Of course the joy of being filled with the Holy Spirit may differ from this joy, maybe or maybe not. All I know is this is the best way I can explain in human words. But again, there are those thorns.
Joy stealers as you will. But if we are careful handling the roses, pick off the thorns, we can enjoy the joy!

“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?”
Roman’s 8:31

By praying and knowing Gods voice. This is how we can carefully handle the stems and pick off the thorns.

It’s funny, I hesitate to write this blog. I hesitate because I know I am not good enough and wonder if it really does any good. I write it out of obedience to God. But, I realize that this blog is for me, more than for the reader. This blog forces me to keep in prayer and to listen to what God wants me to say.

So my prayer is, that God will open my eyes, teach me to be deeper in prayer, and to encourage the reader to do the same.

Let’s remember how our Lord gave His life for us and our loved ones. Let’s remember the loved ones in heaven today and the legacy they left behind so we can be closer to our savior and share with others who don’t know Christ as their Savior and encourage those that do know Christ as their Savior to rest in Him!!!!