We all know the verse: “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thessalonians 5:16). In fact the Bible is full of verses commanding us to rejoice and be full of joy. Matthew 5: 12 says, “Rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven” or Psalm 81:1, “Sing aloud to the God of our strength; shout for joy to the God of our strength; shout for joy to the God of Jacob.” Psalm 16:11 says, “you make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” “Rejoice always,” rejoice and be glad,” “shout for joy,” – these are all commands given by our God. But to be honest, how many of us can say we have much rejoicing going on in our lives? I know I am not “shouting for joy” when I look at my to-do list for the day, or I am facing another round of sickness in the house again. Not to mention all the sorrow and trouble that is in our world and in the lives of the people that I love. Joy seems not just elusive, but impossible. Like David in Psalm 51:12 my soul cries out, “Restore to me the joy of your salvation; uphold me by your generous Spirit.”
Despite all the heartbreak and pain in this world, why does God still insist on our joy, and more specifically our joy in Him? It goes back to our very creation, what we are made to do. The first question of the Westminster Catechism states our purpose clearly, “Man’s chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully to enjoy him forever.” The very essence of our existence is to find enjoyment in God and in glorifying Him. Humans were designed for joy, for happiness. Even now, twisted and broken from the Fall, every human has a deep longing to be happy, to have joy. J.C. Ryle in his book Happiness writes, “Happiness is what everyone longs to obtain. The desire for it is deeply planted in the human heart.”1 Blaise Pascal, a French philosopher, wrote, “All men seek happiness. This is without exception.” Songwriter Pharrell Williams sings, “Clap along if you feel like happiness is the truth, because I’m happy … Clap along if you know what happiness is to you.” Happiness or joy is the truth that we are looking for, but according to Pharrell the definition of how to find happiness is different for everyone. In our desperate search for joy, we look for happiness in everything but the One we were designed to find it in.
Even as Christians, God’s redeemed people, our hearts still struggle to find joy in Him. We easily find ourselves seeking our joy and happiness in all His gifts instead of Him. Tim Keller points out in his book Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power and the Only Hope That Matters that, “To live for anything else but God leads to breakdown and decay…Worshipping other things cannot deliver satisfaction, because they were never meant to be “gods.”2 They were never meant to replace God.” We even manage to take good things, our family, friends, education, work, things that we should place a high value on and substitute them for God. As Randy Alcorn points out, “The greater the good -and friendship is a great and powerful good- the greater our potential to pervert and exalt it as if it were God.”3 As we begin to place higher value on these gifts rather than on God, it steals our joy even in the objects or people that we have elevated above God. Our husband, wife, children, job and friends cannot bear the responsibility of our devotion as they were never designed to meet the needs that God alone can meet. Tim Keller comments, “When we make something an idol it continually makes us miserable. If we fall short of it, it robs us of joy, If our children are our false god, when their lives are troubled, we will lose our joy; and even when their lives might become troubles (which is all the time!), we will worry and lose our joy.”4
So how do we combat these idols and put God in His rightful place? 2 Corinthians 1:24 is a good place to start: “Not that we lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy, for you stand firm in your faith.” In other words we need to pursue our joy in God with effort. We pursue it first by asking. Ask God to give you joy in Him. With David cry out to God, “Restore the joy of our salvation!” Then we pursue God’s joy by knowing Him in His Word. In John 15:10-11 Jesus is exhorting his disciples and giving all His final commands and words. He does this so that, “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full.” In Jeremiah 15:16 Jeremiah confesses, “Your words were found and I ate them and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by your name.” God’s Word fills us with delight and joy because we are reminded of all He has done for us, all that he continues to do, and all that He has promised to do for us. We can know that the price of our salvation, the basis of my happiness and joy has been fully paid for and accomplished. Additionally, we are assured that our salvation can never be taken away. “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 created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38-39. And that’s not all, like all good salespeople say, we are reminded that the God who we are called to find joy in promises us victory over death and an eternity of joy with Him. “But God who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loves us, even when we were dead in trespasses made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved) and raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace and His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” (Eph 2:4-7)
As we meditate and dwell on His word our hearts will be reordered. We will find our joy in God, in His goodness, in His salvation. Not only that, but the love we have for God’s gifts to us will be transformed as well. We will love God’s gifts to us better because we love God more than them. We will see them as amazing gifts from a heavenly Father who delights in our joy. Randy Alcorn says, “When we worship God as God everything else falls into place -good food and drink are delightful; friendship is fulfilling; sex with a marriage partner can be deeply satisfying; and work, hobbies sport, music and entertainment can all enrich our lives as intended.”5 These gifts are then free from the burden of fulfilling our joy and happiness. The God that can never change, the God that can never disappoint us, the God who keeps all His promises, the one who is big enough to bear the burden of our expectations for joy is then in His rightful place.
But what about those moments, days, and years of suffering? How do we find joy in those times? We’ve seen God’s command to rejoice always and give thanks in all circumstances. How do we find joy in the face of our death, our parent’s death, our children’s death, or as we battle illness, heartbreak, disability? In this sin ravaged world, we all will experience the effects of the curse in our lives, bodies, relationships. Seven years ago, my dad died after a long struggle with cancer. His last week was excruciating. I had seen death before, but those deaths had been quiet and peaceful. My dad’s death was painful and agonizing. I remember thinking that there was nothing good about this suffering. It seemed unjust of God to ask me to give thanks for my dad’s death, for his pain. All I could find for joy in that week was the thought, “This isn’t the end.” If there wasn’t a resurrection there would not be any reason for hope or joy. That nugget of hope in God’s promises was all that I could cling to. Not only that but that my dad’s suffering would somehow in God’s sovereignty bring God glory and my dad greater joy in heaven. Romans 8:18, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” That’s the joy we can find in the face of all our suffering now. The best is yet to come! The only way to fight for joy is to remember all that God has done for us. He has redeemed me, He has saved me from an eternity of suffering, and instead promised me an eternity of delight and joy with Him, my chief delight! Along with Duncan Matheson let us pray everyday, “Lord, stamp eternity upon my eyeballs!”
References
1 J.C. Ryle, Happiness, ed. Mary Davis (Darlington CO: EP Books, 2018), 11.
2 Timothy Keller, Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope That Matters (New York: Dutton, 2009).
3 Randy Alcorn, Happiness: Uncovering the Secret to Everlasting Joy (Carol Stream IL: Tyndale: Momentum, 2015), 83.
4 Alcorn, 82–83. Quoting Keller
5 Alcorn, 117.
Mrs Audra Warner is a member of the North Shore Reformed Church in Maungakaramea.
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