The Ineffable Joy of Christian Living

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.