If you have a desire to feel His joy it is because He put that desire there. He wants to be with you even more than you want to be with Him.

The best way to get close to Him again...confess any sin and receive instant forgiveness and restoration. If you have ever been saved and have asked Him to come into your heart, He sealed you with His Spirit and made you a new creation. You can fall out of fellowship but not away from His love. He says that all who come to Him He will in no way cast out. Nothing can separate you from His love.

Sometimes it is simply our own misunderstanding of Who He is that makes Him seem distant. If you have confessed any sin and have reached out to Him, He is there whether you feel Him or not. The enemy will twist and distort your idea and understanding of how He is feeling toward you. The best way to break the enemies distortion is with praise and worship music try this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGCQnwn2hIQ&feature=related .

Stay away from surroundings where He isn't. Rid your environment of those things that don't agree with His Spirit. Look for good and beauty because He is all good and is all light and no darkness. Get rid of all dark things. I'm praying for you. He loves you more than you can ever know. His death on the cross reveals His nature, which is one of overwhelming love.

Love,
Lori

For I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from his love. Death can't, and life can't. The angels won't, and all the powers of hell itself cannot keep God's love away. Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow, or where we are-high above the sky, or in the deepest ocean-nothing will ever be able to separate us from the love of God demonstrated by our Lord Jesus Christ when he died for us.
Romans 8:38-39

He has said, "I will never leave you or forsake you." So we can say with confidence, "The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid."
Hebrews 13:5-6
I ask You to comfort those who feel abandoned, Father. Help them understand you will never fail or forsake them. Lead them down the path of acceptance, so forgiveness is possible and life can go on. Amen

Thanks. I did not realize that the devil can make life unhappy. I need Jesus to give me the strength to keep the devil away. I have accepted Jesus in my life about 20 years ago, today I think it is because I have strayed away and let sin take over. My husband is a Elder at church for over 15 years and has God in his heart til this day and always. He believes in God. That's what I want too. Peace and joy. I am going to ask Jesus to help me and fight this. I appreciate all your help.

The devil has ABSOLUTELY no authority in your life. Maybe you sinned, but Jesus paid for your sins and mine. There isn't a Christian alive that never sins. We still have our flesh. Confessing sin doesn't take away sin, it just restores your fellowship with God because when we sin, we feel guilty because the Holy Spirit in us doesn't allow us to continue in sin. We feel bad and we end up in despair. That is because our spirits are holy and made new because of what Jesus did for us. You can't fight satan to try to keep him away. He has already been defeated. You simply need to remind yourself of your true identity in Christ. That is what helps us to stop sinning. We are spiritually new, we are loved, we are the righteousness of God in Christ. Don't worry about the devil. He would like you to think he has control in your life but he doesn't. Focus on Jesus and scriptures that tell of our new identity. Jesus is still in you. He doesn't come and go. This is a new covenant. You are no longer under the law. If as a christian you are no longer under the law, how can you lose Jesus by breaking a law you are no longer under? It is the cross of Christ. Read the Book of Colossians and the Book of Galatians. You were saved by believing in Jesus, not by works. Jesus saved you and He keeps you saved. You can't become unsaved just like a butterfly can't return to its worm state. You are a new creation, not an old creation covered by blood.
You have peace and joy because Jesus is in you. You just need to be reminded of who you really are in Christ. When we arrive in heaven we don't say, "wow, I did it!" We say thank you Jesus for saving me!" He gets the glory. We are saved by Him alone. God forbid that I should glory in anything but the cross of Christ.

Hi Dillybar,

Here are some specific Scriptures to meditate on...http://www.av1611.org/etern.html

This is a good site for information and reassurance...http://ww2.intouch.org/atf/cf/%7B865500FE-874B-487B-A95C-C0B327D0A690%7D/8-YourEternalSecurity.pdf

My goodness....those links didn't work very well...so sorry. I'll try again, this time typing.

Col. 2: 8-15 - Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world and not according to Christ. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power. In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed the principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.

Hebrews 10:14 For by one offering He has FOREVER perfected those who are being sanctified.

2 Cor 5:17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation: old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Gal 1:6-8 I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But if we,or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.

Gal 2:16 "knowing that a man is not justified by works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified. 3:2,3 This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law, or by hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? 5:1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.