JOY. It is one of the most beautiful three letter words I think, so full of hope and promise. We all long for joy, perhaps more than we do for anything else, but we don’t hear much about joy in our world today, we do hear an awful lot about happiness. Happiness is the word of the times and it comes in all shapes and sizes and with varying price tags. If you stop and think the next time you see an advertisement the whole premise is that what they are selling is somehow going to make us happier. A ’in’ outfit, a tasty meal, a prettier face…these are all for sale in our world today and they claim if we can just gather this, that, and the other the formula of all this stuff will equal my happiness and yours. It sounds kind of silly, but don’t we often live that way? Perhaps we don’t think our happiness depends on what we have or how we look , maybe it’s more friends we think we need to be happy , or freedom from our illness, or for our most distressing problem to just somehow go away. Often we live waiting for a time when things will be ’better’ then we think we will be happy. Trials enter our lives and if we cringe, sigh and sadly wave goodbye to happiness for a while we are revealing that in our heart of hearts we really believe that our well being is bound up in our circumstances. But doesn’t the Bible teach us that we should always have joy? And if so what is the source of this elusive and so sought after joy?
According to my dictionary “happiness results from the possession or attainment of what one considers good” wow! that’s something to think about. If that is true part of the key to happiness lies with in our own hearts and what we are considering good. So what is your joy dependent on? What are you considering good …or not good? If our joy is dependent on things of this earth or even on the people in our lives we should prepare to be disappointed. Life in this fallen world will never be perfect! There will always be one more thing in our lives that in our minds needs fixing. But what if our source of joy was God our Creator and Savior? What if we could have joy on the mountain AND in the valley because we know that we are the children of a good and sovereign God and that nothing, nothing is allowed into our lives that is not for our good? Now that’s what I call secure and certain joy because we know no matter what else changes in our lives HE remains the same. There is a reason to rejoice!
“I have set the Lord always before me; because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoices; my flesh also will rest in hope. …You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” Psalm 16:8-9,11
This is so true! How often I am either wanting something, comparing myself to someone, or grumbling about what I don't like in my life. In fact, I just caught myself doing just that right before I read this blog! Why is it that we know we should be content and joyful, but we are so selfish and focused on the one thing that we don't have? In America we are exceedingly blessed beyond what many other people can not even imagine, and yet we fret. If our focus is on God, we needn't complain. HE will meet all our needs according to His riches in Christ! Thank you for the reminder of this.
ReplyDeleteBecause He's my Prince of Peace,
Brook Chapline.
Proverbs 31:31