Deuteronomy 16:15 English Standard Version (ESV) For seven days you shall keep the feast to the Lord your God at the place that the Lord will choose, because the Lord your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you will be altogether joyful.

Deuteronomy 28:46-48 English Standard Version

46 They shall be a sign and a wonder against you and your offspring forever. 47 Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart, because of the abundance of all things, 48 therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger and thirst, in nakedness, and lacking everything. And he will put a yoke of iron on your neck until he has destroyed you.

These are the first two search results when we use a computer to search the words joy and Lord together.

This joy is one of attitude. God blesses us in the work of our hands.

Then in service to Him if our attitude is not one of gratitude, we find it displeases the Lord our God.

Perhaps this simple search of Joy is not the Joy of the Lord but it does tell us God blesses us so that we will have plenty to be grateful for. 

Any simple expression of that gratitude honors God. We give thanks at every meal. Or do we?

We prepare a big meal and in togetherness praise God for the blessings. If we get up from the football game on tv to get a snack, do we remember to count our blessings? Probably not. But then again we are not serving the Lord watching tv. Does that excuse us from blessing the snack?

Thanks be unto the Lord our God that we live in the age of grace and not under the Law of the Old Covenant.

I cannot help but wonder in service to our Lord if we do so with an attitude of gratefulness so that we might find joy in the work?

While this is all about our emotional attitude I do not find any satisfaction in this search that says I have found the Joy of the Lord.

Even though I have not found what I seek, I have to admit that attitude in service is important.

The search continues. What does the Lord have to say next?