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VERSES ABOUT JOY
Think about it: the joy of the Lord doesn't just fill you with strength, it brings us all together. It's a joy that's not meant to be kept to yourself; it needs to be shared. Just like the Israelites were instructed to celebrate and share what they had with each other, you can spread the joy of the Lord with everyone you know.
This joy challenges you to love your neighbor and share the Gospel. When your heart is joyful in God, you are strong and empowered to spread that joy throughout your community. It's a lasting joy, something no one can take away.
Psalm 98:4-6 says, "Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth, burst into jubilant song with music; make music to the Lord with the harp, with the harp and the sound of singing, with trumpets and the blast of the ram’s horn— shout for joy before the Lord, the King." You can find so many verses like this that talk about the joy of our God.
I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you. I will make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others.
The Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says: “I will again do good things for the people of Judah. At that time the people in the land of Judah and its towns will again use these words: ‘May the Lord bless you, home of what is good, holy mountain.’
At that time Israel, Assyria, and Egypt will join together, which will be a blessing for the earth.
He will love and bless you. He will make the number of your people grow; he will bless you with children. He will bless your fields with good crops and will give you grain, new wine, and oil. He will bless your herds with calves and your flocks with lambs in the land he promised your ancestors he would give you.
Then Aaron lifted his hands toward the people and blessed them. When he had finished offering the sin offering, the burnt offering, and the fellowship offering, he stepped down from the altar.
Stay in this land, and I will be with you and bless you. I will give you and your descendants all these lands, and I will keep the oath I made to Abraham your father.
So Israel blessed them that day and said, “When a blessing is given in Israel, they will say: ‘May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh.’ ” In this way he made Ephraim greater than Manasseh.
I will bless those who bless you, and I will place a curse on those who harm you. And all the people on earth will be blessed through you.”
Everyone in all nations will know the children of my people, and their children will be known among the nations. Anyone who sees them will know that they are people the Lord has blessed.”
Your father’s God helps you. God Almighty blesses you. He blesses you with rain from above, with water from springs below, with many babies born to your wives, and many young ones born to your animals.
I command you today to love the Lord your God, to do what he wants you to do, and to keep his commands, his rules, and his laws. Then you will live and grow in number, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to take as your own.
Your God says, “Comfort, comfort my people.
Look, the Lord God is coming with power to rule all the people. Look, he will bring reward for his people; he will have their payment with him.
He takes care of his people like a shepherd. He gathers them like lambs in his arms and carries them close to him. He gently leads the mothers of the lambs.
Who has measured the oceans in the palm of his hand? Who has used his hand to measure the sky? Who has used a bowl to measure all the dust of the earth and scales to weigh the mountains and hills?
Who has known the mind of the Lord or been able to give him advice?
Whom did he ask for help? Who taught him the right way? Who taught him knowledge and showed him the way to understanding?
The nations are like one small drop in a bucket; they are no more than the dust on his measuring scales. To him the islands are no more than fine dust on his scales.
All the trees in Lebanon are not enough for the altar fires, and all the animals in Lebanon are not enough for burnt offerings.
Compared to the Lord all the nations are worth nothing; to him they are less than nothing.
Can you compare God to anything? Can you compare him to an image of anything?
An idol is formed by a craftsman, and a goldsmith covers it with gold and makes silver chains for it.
Speak kindly to the people of Jerusalem and tell them that their time of service is finished, that they have paid for their sins, that the Lord has punished Jerusalem twice for every sin they did.”
When Joseph was put in charge of the house and everything Potiphar owned, the Lord blessed the people in Potiphar’s house because of Joseph. And the Lord blessed everything that belonged to Potiphar, both in the house and in the field.
Judah and Israel, your names have been used as curses in other nations. But I will save you, and you will become a blessing. So don’t be afraid; work hard.”
Those who trust the Lord are like Mount Zion, which sits unmoved forever.
As the mountains surround Jerusalem, the Lord surrounds his people now and forever.
The Lord will take away all disease from you; you will not have the terrible diseases that were in Egypt, but he will give them to all the people who hate you.
Praise the Lord God, the God of Israel, who alone does such miracles.
Praise his glorious name forever. Let his glory fill the whole world. Amen and amen.
You will call for nations that you don’t yet know. And these nations that do not know you will run to you because of the Lord your God, because of the Holy One of Israel who honors you.”
The Lord will help you defeat the enemies that come to fight you. They will attack you from one direction, but they will run from you in seven directions.
They were happy to do this, and really they owe it to them. These who are not Jews have shared in the Jews’ spiritual blessings, so they should use their material possessions to help the Jews.
This is what the Lord All-Powerful says: “After he has honored me and sent me against the nations who took your possessions—because whoever touches you hurts what is precious to me—
The Scriptures, telling what would happen in the future, said that God would make the non-Jewish people right through their faith. This Good News was told to Abraham beforehand, as the Scripture says: “All nations will be blessed through you.”
Jerusalem, if I forget you, let my right hand lose its skill.
Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not think about Jerusalem as my greatest joy.
When I came, you had little, but now you have much. Every time I did something for you, the Lord blessed you. But when will I be able to do something for my own family?”
The mountains may disappear, and the hills may come to an end, but my love will never disappear; my promise of peace will not come to an end,” says the Lord who shows mercy to you.
The Lord remembers us and will bless us. He will bless the family of Israel; he will bless the family of Aaron.
The Lord will bless those who respect him, from the smallest to the greatest.
Through your descendants all the nations on the earth will be blessed, because you obeyed me.’ ”
Your descendants will be as many as the dust of the earth. They will spread west and east, north and south, and all the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your descendants.
The Lord your God will put all these curses on your enemies, who hate you and are cruel to you.
But you are a chosen people, royal priests, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession. You were chosen to tell about the wonderful acts of God, who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
But there should be no poor people among you, because the Lord your God will richly bless you in the land he is giving you as your own.
This is what the Lord God says: “See, I will lift my hand to signal the nations; I will raise my banner for all the people to see. Then they will bring your sons back to you in their arms, and they will carry your daughters on their shoulders.
The Lord has chosen Jerusalem; he wants it for his home.
He says, “This is my resting place forever. Here is where I want to stay.
When the Lord brought the prisoners back to Jerusalem, it seemed as if we were dreaming.
Then we were filled with laughter, and we sang happy songs. Then the other nations said, “The Lord has done great things for them.”
Say to the people, ‘This is what the Lord God says: I am going to take the people of Israel from among the nations where they have gone. I will gather them from all around and bring them into their own land.
I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. One king will rule all of them. They will never again be two nations; they will not be divided into two kingdoms anymore.
Jerusalem, I have put guards on the walls to watch. They must not be silent day or night. You people who remind the Lord of your needs in prayer should never be quiet.
You should not stop praying to him until he builds up Jerusalem and makes it a city all people will praise.
May nations serve you and peoples bow down to you. May you be master over your brothers, and may your mother’s sons bow down to you. May everyone who curses you be cursed, and may everyone who blesses you be blessed.”
There is a river that brings joy to the city of God, the holy place where God Most High lives.
“ ‘I will take you from the nations and gather you out of all the lands and bring you back into your own land.
Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your uncleanness and your idols.
Also, I will teach you to respect me completely, and I will put a new way of thinking inside you. I will take out the stubborn hearts of stone from your bodies, and I will give you obedient hearts of flesh.
Make your tent bigger; stretch it out and make it wider. Do not hold back. Make the ropes longer and its stakes stronger,
because you will spread out to the right and to the left. Your children will take over other nations, and they will again live in cities that once were destroyed.
The Lord built Jerusalem on the holy mountain.
He loves its gates more than any other place in Israel.
City of God, wonderful things are said about you.Selah
“I will pour out on David’s family and the people in Jerusalem a spirit of kindness and mercy. They will look at me, the one they have stabbed, and they will cry like someone crying over the death of an only child. They will be as sad as someone who has lost a firstborn son.
I will bless them and let them live around my hill. I will cause the rains to come when it is time; there will be showers to bless them.
Also the trees in the countryside will give their fruit, and the land will give its harvest. And the sheep will be safe on their land. Then they will know that I am the Lord when I break the bars of their captivity and save them from the power of those who made them slaves.
May the Lord give you success, and may he give you and your children success.
May you be blessed by the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
This is what the Lord God says: “See, I will lift my hand to signal the nations; I will raise my banner for all the people to see. Then they will bring your sons back to you in their arms, and they will carry your daughters on their shoulders.
Kings will teach your children, and daughters of kings will take care of them. They will bow down before you and kiss the dirt at your feet. Then you will know I am the Lord. Anyone who trusts in me will not be disappointed.”
“Nations, listen to the message from the Lord. Tell this message in the faraway lands by the sea: ‘The one who scattered the people of Israel will bring them back, and he will watch over his people like a shepherd.’
Let God rise up and scatter his enemies; let those who hate him run away from him.
Your people settled there. God, in your goodness you took care of the poor.
The Lord gave the command, and a great army told the news:
“Kings and their armies run away. In camp they divide the wealth taken in war.
Those who stayed by the campfires will share the riches taken in battle.”
The Almighty scattered kings like snow on Mount Zalmon.
The mountains of Bashan are high; the mountains of Bashan have many peaks.
Why do you mountains with many peaks look with envy on the mountain that God chose for his home? The Lord will live there forever.
God comes with millions of chariots; the Lord comes from Mount Sinai to his holy place.
When you went up to the heights, you led a parade of captives. You received gifts from the people, even from those who turned against you. And the Lord God will live there.
Praise the Lord, God our Savior, who helps us every day.Selah
Blow them away as smoke is driven away by the wind. As wax melts before a fire, let the wicked be destroyed before God.
“From the east to the west I will be honored among the nations. Everywhere they will bring incense and clean offerings to me, because I will be honored among the nations,” says the Lord All-Powerful.
In the last days the mountain on which the Lord’s Temple stands will become the most important of all mountains. It will be raised above the hills, and people from all nations will come streaming to it.
At that time people will throw away their gold and silver idols, which they made for themselves to worship; they will throw them away to the bats and moles.
Then the people will hide in caves and cracks in the rocks from the anger of the Lord and his great power, when he stands to shake the earth.
You should stop trusting in people to save you, because people are only human; they aren’t able to help you.
Many nations will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the Temple of the God of Jacob. Then God will teach us his ways, and we will obey his teachings.” His teachings will go out from Jerusalem; the message of the Lord will go out from Jerusalem.
And that is how all Israel will be saved. It is written in the Scriptures: “The Savior will come from Jerusalem; he will take away all evil from the family of Jacob.
Today I ask heaven and earth to be witnesses. I am offering you life or death, blessings or curses. Now, choose life! Then you and your children may live.
Then you and your children will return to the Lord your God, and you will obey him with your whole being in everything I am commanding you today.
To choose life is to love the Lord your God, obey him, and stay close to him. He is your life, and he will let you live many years in the land, the land he promised to give your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Announce that God is powerful. He rules over Israel, and his power is in the skies.
God, you are wonderful in your Temple. The God of Israel gives his people strength and power. Praise God!