Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the
wells of salvation_ Isa 12:3
Neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the LORD is your
strength_ Neh 8:10
And these things write we unto you, that your joy
may be full_ 1Jo 1:4
Christian joy defies expression. It is something to be experienced to be
believed.
The
dichotomy between natural and spiritual also exists here. So there is a
spiritual joy and there is a natural joy. The natural joy is that which
pertaineth to the flesh. It is the joy of the world and it is driven by good
feelings.
But let
the clouds turn dark and gloomy and the natural temper of men also turns dark
and gloomy. They meet with a slight mishap and their sorrow is assured. Their
joy withers inside them like dry stubs of grass.
The believer
on the other hand remains in a state of joyfulness at all times. It is his
faith which drives him.
The faith
will increase where joy is increased. But faith will take a beating where joy
has shrunk. The two are correlated. To shrink joy is to strangle faith.
Normally
to be a Christian is to be called a “new creature.” And by that virtue alone all
Christian behavior will seem to break all tenets of conventional wisdom. For
example, how can one be joyful in the face of suffering?
Viewed from
the “outside” this believer would resemble a sort of fool to a non-believer (1
Co 1:18-25; 4:10).
The
saints of the Bible seemed that way. They lived their faith and their joy was
evident throughout their lives. The saints of our day are a different people
though. They would resemble the Malachi people. God asked them a question, and
they hurled back the same question at Him. “Wherein have we despised your
name?”
Christianity
is in essence about separation. A sanctified people are a people who have been
set apart. We are in the world but we are not of this world (Joh 15:19; 1 Joh
2:15-17; Rom 12:2; Col 3:1-2).
It was
thus that Abraham was “called out” to get out of his country, and from his
kindred, and from his father’s house – unto “a land that I will shew thee” (Gen
12:1). We have also been “called out” of this world. Church is the English name
for Ekkleesia, the Greek name for an
assembly or community of believers, the “called out” ones. It is not a church
building or denomination. The church might be in a person’s house, under a tree
or in a cave.
God
might have called and kept Abraham in his own father’s land, and among his own
people, but He didn’t. When one is called of God one is also called to make a
clean break.
Abraham walked in obedience and was
fully persuaded that what God had promised, “he was able also to perform.” Whatever
our circumstances we too lean on the same persuasion. The same faith. The same
hope. The same joy.
These
Things were Written for our Own Joy
The examples abound everywhere in
Scripture of the saints who kept their joy despite seeing very hard things.
We begin
with Paul. Though beset with much travail and labour in this world, yet he
never denied his joy.
When he
was put in prison he may have been physically “crippled” in the sense he could
not move about, but his preaching was carried on in the redoubtable prison
epistles which he penned. He may have been in bonds but that did not take away
his joy. Instead he rallied his disciples, who were not in bonds but were out
free, to “Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice” (Phi 4:4).
It was
the same when he was put in prison with Silas. They prayed and sang songs even in
the middle of the night!
The catalogue of Paul’s mishaps only grew larger, as also his joy broke
the banks of belief.
Thrice
was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night
and a day I have been in the deep; In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own
countrymen, in perils by the
heathen, in perils in the city,
in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; In
weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in
fastings often, in cold and nakedness (2Co
11:25-27).
The martyrs when they went down to
the stakes, they went down with their heads held high. They approached their fiery
death in a flaming joy. No wonder Paul observed that “We are fools for Christ’s
sake” (1 Co 4:10a)!
Paul
endured it all yet he never lost his joy.
This is that which is called glorying in tribulation. Satan meant to put
a damper on their joy, but even in their “bonds’ they “saw” Christ and
glorified him.
You are
in bonds too. You are in a fix. Your joy is in faraway places. You grieve and
you hurt. The secret is to discover your joy. Go after it. Look for it and
shame the devil. Sing and make melody. If perhaps you cannot do it physically,
let the joy break inside your heart.
They
tried to kill Paul many times but they couldn’t kill his spirit. Even his
famous thorn in the flesh was crushed when the waves of his joy beat hard against
it.
Saul
tried it on David but he could not kill his spirit either. Instead it rose in
turbulent defiance and poured forth his music and song which we still sing and cherish
today in the hymns.
Each
time David began his prayers by pouring his grief on God. That was and still is
acceptable. Each time he ended by pouring his joyous belief that God had heard
him, that God would answer him. That is still the way to go.
David
started in grief. He ended joyously in faith. He began in weakness, by the end
he had soared in confidence and stregnth. He never lost his joy though his many
enemies tried to kill it. The joy of the Lord is your strength. Go for it by
all means.
For
his anger endureth but a moment; in his favor is life: weeping may endure for a
night, but joy cometh in the
morning_ Psa 30:5.
Thou
hast turned for me my mourning into dancing: thou hast put off my sackcloth,
and girded me with gladness_ Psa 30:11.
Thou
wilt show me the path of life: in thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are
pleasures forevermore_ Psa 16:11.
Habakkuk
too was once a terrified man in this world. God had spoken things of judgments
and wrath, and Habakkuk had heard and had been left cold with sweat. “When I heard, my belly trembled; my lips
quivered at the voice: rottenness entered into my bones, and I trembled in
myself, that I might rest in the day of trouble: when he cometh up unto the
people, he will invade them with his troops” (Hab 3:16).
Yet even in that terrifying moment Habakkuk had
gathered courage and summoned up his reservoirs of joy. “Although the
fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines;
the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the
flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be
no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of
my salvation” (Hab 3:17-18).
You are frozen with terror too. What is your fear,
my brother, my sister? What has stolen your joy? Sum up your courage and dare
to be joyful again because God is still on the throne.
These things were written for our
own sake, our encouragement. For our learning. Make the Bible your friend. Soak
your heart in it every day.
“For whatsoever things were
written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and
comfort of the Scriptures might have hope” (Rom 15:4).
“Now all these things happened
unto them for examples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the
ends of the world are come” (1Co
10:11).
The
Terror of Sin
Probably it is the remembrance of a grievous sin you
have committed and you are feeling as heavy as David once felt.
O
LORD, rebuke me not in thy wrath: neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure.
For
thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore.
There is
no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger; neither is there any rest
in my bones because of my sin.
For
mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as a heavy burden they are too heavy
for me.
My
wounds stink and are corrupt
because of my foolishness.
I
am troubled; I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long.
For
my loins are filled with a loathsome disease:
and there is no soundness in my flesh.
I
am feeble and sore broken: I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my
heart.
Lord,
all my desire is before thee;
and my groaning is not hid from thee.
My
heart panteth, my strength faileth me: as for the light of mine eyes, it also
is gone from me. Psa 38:1-10.
David remembered that. David
recalled his sin and he was sorry for it. “For I will declare mine iniquity: I
will be sorry for my sin.” David did not
fear to look and sound foolish. “My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my
foolishness.”
David understood he was a man, a
whole man, and a king no less. But David did not fear to own that he had been
foolish.
David repented. Then David
believed he was forgiven. He did not continue in his sorrow. David regained his
joy, and David declared it loudly with his own mouth to his God.
No wonder God declared David to
be a man after His own heart. When it was time for repenting David repented (in
his songs before his people) without shame! When it was time for weeping he
wept, as we say, like a woman. When it was time for dancing David, a whole king,
sang and danced for His God (before his people) without shame! He danced like
mad until his wife Michal was scandalized, but God delt with her “shame.”
“For whosoever shall be ashamed
of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come
in his own glory, and in his Father's, and of the holy angels” (Luk 9:26).
What is your shame and what is
your sin that has left no “soundness” in your flesh? The way of God is always
the way of invitation. He says, “Come now, and let us reason together, saith
the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow;
though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool” (Isa 1:18).
God forgives. And unlike man God
does not remember your sins anymore.
“I, even I, am he
that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember
thy sins” (Isa 43:25).
“And their sins and iniquities
will I remember no more” (Heb
10:17).
What Amazing Grace! “Amazing
grace, how sweet the sound/That saved a wretch like Me! I once was lost but now
am found/Was blind but now I see….” God can turn a “wretch” like that into
something beautiful. He did that for John Newton. He has done that for
countless millions others too. He can do that for you as well. Do you believe
that? If you do then declare it to your God without shame, as David once did,
“And now, Lord, what wait I for? My hope is in thee” (Ps 39:7).
So why should your sin, however big, (if repented
and forgiven) steal your joy anymore?
“Be of good courage, and he shall
strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the LORD” (Psa 31:24).
My meditation of him shall be sweet: I will be glad
in the LORD_ Psa 104:34
Whatever your travail is let your
meditation of Him remain sweet also in your mind. Let the joy of the Lord be
your strength. Remember His goodness. Remember His benefits. Remember His
promises. May that be a joy unto you. May His grace be sufficient unto thee.
God is still
able to do exceeding abundantly more than we can ask or think. Think on that.
Besides
who can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus? The rising crescendo
of Paul’s ringing doxology affirms it all.
Who
shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or
nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is
written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep
for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through
him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor
angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us
from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Rom 8:35-39.
Honestly is there a reason to
lose your joy anymore in this world?
Presently the dark and gloomy
clouds will lift and fade. The sun will shine again. The sun will ever shine
again. As it is written, “While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and
cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease” (Gen
8:22).
Two aids will help us in remaining
joyful at all times. The giving of thanks unto God for all things and praying without ceasing (Eph 6:18; Col 4:2; 1 Th
5:17, 18; Eph 5:20). All things means
the things which please us and the things which do not. Forgive and love your
enemies. Keep your joy at all costs. Keep your peace.
Finally
we cleave to this promise by all our
strength: “that
all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the
called according to his purpose” (Rom 8:28). That is our joy. It is our peace too.
Whom having not seen, ye love; in
whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy
unspeakable and full of glory. 1Pe 1:8 Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation;
continuing instant in prayer. Rom 12:12.
Following are Types of Joy as Evidenced in Scripture
·
Joy
of faith – Phi 1:25.
·
Joy
in hope of glory – Rom 5:2.
·
Joy
in tribulation – Rom 5:3.
·
Joy
in believing – Rom 15:13.
·
Joy
in suffering – 1 Pe 4:13
Now
unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of
his glory with exceeding joy, To the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and
power, both now and ever. Amen. Jud
1:24-25.
