Happiness or Joy?

Always be joyful.
1 Thessalonians 5:16 NLT
    While reading the Bible one day I was struck by this passage. Many people associate joy with happiness.  Happiness brings joy and joy brings happiness.  According to Webster's dictionary, joy is "the emotion evoked by well-being...source or cause of delight" and happy: "enjoying or characterized by well-being."  Wow…source of delight?
     I don't want just happiness, I want joy.  I want happiness that can NEVER be taken away. Happiness is an emotion that causes feelings; it makes us feel good.  When we ace a test, get a job or promotion, finally get something we desired, etc.  These things make us happy. Happiness comes from something and ultimately from something that can be taken, lost, or destroyed.  Joy comes from within and is from God; it gets you through troubled times.  Joy cannot be stolen from you because it is not an emotion affected by circumstance; it brings a peace and contentment that separates us from the world.  
      The world looks for "quick fixes" to be happy while we should look to the one true Joymaker, God.  

     Lord, I pray that each and every member of Fusion would strive to know the difference between happiness and joy.  I ask Lord, that You would be their one, true Joymaker and that they would find their contentment in You. We know that true contentment is not satisfied by any earthly thing but only comes from You. Give us joy that can never be stolen by any man. Amen.

    ~Holly Finley