Cascade of Joy

Recently I began an accountability pact with my best friend and we have a series of questions we ask each other to stay accountable. One of the questions she asked me was: Have you let anyone rob you of your joy? I had to say...yes... Yes, I have let people, myself, or the devil rob me of my joy...the Lord's joy. It was difficult to say, but it hit me like a nail. Why do I let people rob me of this wonderful joy that the Lord has given me? Lately, I have been extremely happy, joyous, and excited about my life and what God is doing in it. I have been tremendously excited and thrilled. I was enveloped in the very essence of the word joy, which has the synonyms of delight, bliss, happiness, and enjoyment. But yesterday and the day before I just felt down..for no apparent reason. At work I let myself become irritated with the slightest thing, even snapping at a co-worker. I decided to look up the word "joy" in the bible index. I came up with 10 pages of results. Wow, that must mean that it's important. After reading just a few, I realize that God gives us JOY and the Lord is good and we should rejoice in Him. I once heard that God gives us joy, but it is our choice whether to accept it and rejoice. It's like God is just pouring down joy and it's rushing down like a wonderful waterfall and we are standing there in front of it. It's our choice whether or not we step into it and become engulfed by this joy. God's joy is waiting, will you accept it? Or will you let someone rob you of your joy? My challenge to myself is to accept this wonderful gift of joy the Lord has given me and to walk into the waterfall and be enveloped by bliss. I will try my best not to let anyone rob me of this joy and to focus my eyes on Jesus because I can only do this with His help.