Joy = being satisfied with life. Some people look contented on the outside, but it's over-dependence on people that you try to manipulate. People are undependable. We don't want people to know they hurt us so we build walls of callousness around ourselves, we act stoic.
Contentment is a process and must be learned. We must go through difficult times to learn it. Relationships should be inter-dependent. Difficulties help us learn how to give and to depend on God (Deut. 8:3).
"Abundant" in Greek means "super-abundant in quantity and superior in quality" (John 10:10)
"Blessed" in Greek means to be so full of Joy as to be envied. This is how we are to provoke non-believers to jealousy: be soooooo full of joy!
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