Joy
So many people in this world are constantly on a scavenger hunt for happiness. For many it’s like a wisp of a cloud the moment you have it in your hands it begins to slip away. Happiness is caused by a great many things, a new ‘thing’, a person, money, a place, etc. We are always looking for that new thing and if we only had it, then… we’d be happy. For me, I have often found, and I’m not proud of this, my happiness seems to often depend on if I am in a relationship or not. While I have had the last two years to find my own happiness without someone I’ve had marginal success. The difference between happiness and joy is, joy is a tangible feeling, something that doesn’t fade in the test of time. Where do you find your joy, and is your joy fleeting? Scripture tells us where your joy should be found, and once you have it, shouldn’t be something easily taken away.
True hope, true joy, is found in the knowledge that this life is a fleeting moment, and eternity is paradise. Jesus said John 14:27”27 Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” I was listening to a song recently called Joy by, For King & Country, and in the song it talks about how you need to make a choice, a choice on how you want to live. In the music video the world looks black and white, it looks like it has no hope, but at the end, there’s a line that says, “While our circumstances haven’t change, our perspective can.” We know the storms are going to come and even when everything around us looks awful, there’s hope in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. John 14:27“27 Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” In life sometimes we get to the point where we are holding by a thread, but in our greatest time of need, when your laying on the ground and the paramedic leans over you to reassure you, ‘you’re going to be fine, just hold on.’ Jesus is our paramedic in a world where we’re always on the brink. My help comes from Jesus, my refuge from the storms. When the world is it’s darkest, Jesus is the lighthouse shining brightly from Heaven and I’m being guided home. So long as I keep my eyes on the guiding light, I shall not fall off course, I shall navigate the storms no matter how grim things look. My peace in Jesus gives me strength, and even though the world is like a vampire trying to suck away my joy, I shall be renewed by the Holy Spirit every day. I drink from the everlasting cup, knowing that today will pass, tomorrow will rise, and one day I know my ship will sail into the most beautiful harbor, and I shall finally rest.
Don’t let trials from this world steal your joy. We can look at the Apostle Paul for inspiration of what it means to have joy. Paul said, ‘your grace is sufficient.’ Speaking of Jesus Christ. Paul endured hardships few of us will ever see in our lives. Even when Paul was in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, sentenced to death by Nero, he proclaimed he was at peace, because he knew true joy. In James 1:2-4“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces [a]patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be [b]perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” see the brother of Jesus telling everyone there is joy because he believes in the Holy Spirit. The church was being persecuted, hunted down, and people were being thrown in jail, tortured, and killed for their believe in Christ. Even as their seemed to be no physical hope of an end to the suffering, those who knew Jesus, knew that we can never count on this world for hope, and most importantly, if we did count on the world for hope, what looks like joy in our lives will simply be crushed by the weight of a world designed to try and break you.
Sin is heavy and if we don’t understand where our joy comes from we will never be free of that weight. The longer you carry the same amount of weight the heavier it feels even though, no matter how long you hold a 5 gallon bucket, though it’s still 5 gallons, it feels like 100. Sin doesn’t have to crush you, it doesn’t have to suck the joy out of your life. It may remove earthly happiness, but it’s up to us, each and every one of us, if we allow it to remove our joy. Galatians 5:22“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,” Live in love, and live in Joy. In that joy of the Lord you shall find peace. The lighthouse from Heaven will never go out, it’ll never get dull, and in our daily devotions, our daily walk with Christ, let that light shine brightly in our hearts, and then allow that light to reflect off you like the moon. Light up the darkness by being a reflection of what Jesus has done for all of us. “Joy to the world, the Lord is come, let earth receive her King.”
The Arrow Preacher 