What About Joy? Pastor Paul

LEAP FOR JOY

When this weeks blog topic appeared I found myself overwhelmed with ideas and directions for writing.  So I went to the scriptures in search of clarity.  I just finished going through all of the verses on joy in the Old and New Testaments.  They both encouraged and challenged me.

I was encouraged by verses in Joel and John...

Joel 1:11-12 (NLT)   

 Despair, all you farmers! Wail, all you vine growers! Weep, because the wheat and barley— all the crops of the field—are ruined.  The grapevines have dried up, and the fig trees have withered. The pomegranate trees, palm     trees, and apple trees— all the fruit trees—have dried up. And the people’s joy has dried up with them.   

 John 16:20 (NLT)

I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn over what is going to happen to me, but the world will rejoice...

It might sound strange, but I was encouraged to hear Joel say that the peoples joy dried up.  And to hear Jesus tell His disciples that they would weep and mourn when He died.  There are times in our lives when we are in the midst of terrible things.  They hurt, we are sad, and our joy might dry up!  The prophet said it this way in a very famous poem, "A time to cry and a time to laugh. A time to grieve and a time to dance."  Ecclesiastes 3:4 (NLT)  When Christians fail to acknowledge the pain and hurt in a persons situation it produces guilt, not healing.  There is a time to mourn, cry, weep, and hurt.  We would be less than human if we did not!  The shortest verse  in the Bible is, "Jesus wept."

Then the word came full circle and challenged me.  "Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice!"   Philippians 4:4 (NLT)  The Apostle Paul wrote this from a Roman prison cell.  He said it again to the church at Corinth in 2 Corinthians 6:10 (NLT)  Our hearts ache, but we always have joy. We are poor, but we give spiritual riches to others. We own nothing, and yet we have everything.  And again he wrote to the Christians at Rome.   Romans 15:13 (NLT)   I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. 

Taken together these verses give me a clear message.  There are times when the circumstances of life will take the wind out of our sails!  There will be times when we are down in the emotional dirt.  The good news is that we do not need to stay there in a never ending state of sorrow.  There comes a time in the process of healing when God calls us to take hold of Him and rekindle the joy that He intends for us to have.  There is something important in the last line of the Lazarus story.  John 11:44 (NLT) And the dead man came out, his hands and feet bound in graveclothes, his face wrapped in a headcloth. Jesus told them, “Unwrap him and let him go!”  Even though Jesus had raised him from the dead there was still junk to be cut off.  When we go through a healing process there will be times of letting the joy in, and times of leaving the pain behind us.  We must be willing to leave the pain behind!

King David understood the reality of pain, and joy.  He knew astounding triumph, and terrible loss.  Yet, no matter how many times life knocked David down... he always reached out to God in the absolute confidence that He would lift him up!  May his example both encourage and challenge us.

Psalm 28:6-7 (NLT)

Praise the LORD!

For he has heard my cry for mercy.

The LORD is my strength and shield.

I trust him with all my heart.

He helps me, and my heart is filled with joy.

I burst out in songs of thanksgiving.

No matter what you are going through, have been through, or will go through...

I pray that God gives you His precious gifts of peace and joy!            Pastor Paul