Joy

So, I’m not quite sure why God put this on my heart but he did so here at 12:01am I’m listening to Prodigal Soul by Switchfoot on repeat reading through James 1. I think in todays world we have a misconception on the word Joy and what Joy truly is, I think we’ve twisted it to match the things we love about the world and the things we want to hold onto here on earth. When ultimately the things of this world will never give us true fulfilling Joy. 

 

Some of us find our Joy in our possessions, friends, loved ones, etc. In Job 19 the writer (Job) talks about how he is being tormented and how everything he owned and possessed was gone and the people he loved or cared for and his friends and even the children in the streets abandoned him and talked bad about him and just all of these terrible things. I think this goes to show that our Joy can’t come from things of this world but of things bigger. Everything we love in this world: riches, friends, possessions, they will all whither and pass away like a flower in a field, James 1:10. In Psalm 97:10-12 it says, “O you who love the Lord, hate evil! He preserves the lives of his saints; he delivers them from the hand of the wicked. Light is sown for the righteous, and JOY for the upright in heart. REJOICE IN THE LORD, O you righteous and GIVE THANKS to his holy name” In Habakkuk 3:17-19 it says “Though the fig tree should not blossom , nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I WILL REJOICE IN THE LORD; I will TAKE JOY IN THE GOD OF MY SALVATION. God the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places. {anything all caps is mine for emphasis} 

 

We can clearly see that the word Joy means something much different then what the world says it is. It is pure and a form of praise and worship to God, finding our Joy in the Lord who created the whole universe is the only way to truly understand the feeling of Joy. “Count it all JOY my brothers when you meet trials of various kinds” James 1:2. How are we supposed to find Joy in the midst of trials and hardships if our “joy” is found on a screen and the screen dies, or the person you find “joy” in leaves your life, or the things you find your “joy” in disappear, whatever that may be. Guys we need to wake up to the reality that we CAN NOT find TRUE, PURE, and WONDERFUL JOY in the things of this world. The ONLY way to find it is through the Lord, we are son’s and daughters of the God of the whole universe, how crazy is that!! Why would we want to try and find Joy in anything else!! I was sitting on a big rock on the beach on Saturday and I was just looking out over the ocean in pure awe and Joy that God put me there and i the beautiful world of his creating to live and do as he wishes and what is good and beautiful in this earth.

 

 But we have to remember, this isn’t it, what we see as beautiful now is going to be so much more beautiful in heaven. Find Joy in the little things from God, whether it be  pretty flower in his creation, find Joy in every moment of your life in just praising and thanking God that he chose YOU to be exactly where you are and to fulfill his great purpose, to bring his word, the Gospel to the nations. Some of you may be seeing this and thinking, “How am I supposed to take his Word to the nations, I don’t have the time or money.” I’m gonna let you in on a little secret, the nation’s are your neighbors, the nations is the guy at the grocery store struggling to get his groceries in his car, the nations is all around you in your community! Start spreading the Joy of the Lord around your community and help someone out this week! Bring the Gospel and the Joy of the Lord to the nations through your actions!! No matter how small you think they are!! GO pick up the trash from your neighbors yard! The Joy of the Lord is in each and every one of you! God loves his children!! He wants to see us spreading his Joy to the nations!! 

 

Until The Whole World Hears!!!

 

TO THE KING!!