This time of the year, one of my favorite Christmas carols is “Joy to the World”.
The lyrics tell the real story of Christmas:
“Joy to the World , the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing.”
What is joy?
Somebody once said that joy is happiness with a much longer shelf life. But joy is even more than that.
Joy is not happiness. Joy is a characteristic of the Christian and the word ‘joy’ is all over the Bible. We find it in our prayers, hymns and praise songs.
Joy is described in the Bible in Galatians as a fruit – it is not something to be pursued, it is rather a consequence of the Christian life, a product.
Joy isn’t so much about happiness as the source of our happiness. Joy comes as we learn to trust in God and place our futures into his hands. Joy is about seeing the wide perspective, so Joy sustains us through life.
We have joy because of Christ, and nothing can change that. We can trust in Christ and because of that we have joy, a reassurance and confidence and therefore a well being. Joy is not trying to be happy, it is that deep sense of well being which we get from resting in God, knowing that all will be well.
Joy is about getting this into perspective, not how wide our smile is. So Jesus encourages us to recognize that we can be joyful when we gain a real perspective and stop seeing this life as the be all and end all of our existence. For the Christian has the promise of Jesus that the best is yet to come. We can be joyful in spite of circumstances.
In Nehemiah 8:10 we read: "The joy of the Lord is your strength.”
The great English teacher and pastor the late Charles H. Spurgeon may have summed up best the Christian desire for joy when he wrote: “I desire now a fresh blast from God's Spirit to blow the flame very vehemently. Let us meet for prayer tomorrow, and let the prayer be very earnest, and let those wrestlers who have been moved to agonizing supplication renew the ardour and fervency of their desires, and may we be a strong people, and consequently a joyous people in the strength and joy of the Lord.”
So as we go forward today let us stop feeling sorry for ourselves, and look around for opportunities to glorify God and we will find joy as we use those opportunities for God's glory.
Look for opportunities as servants, rather than wallow and complain about our circumstances. Paul saw an opportunity to share with those he would not normally encounter. He used his chains as a teaching tool that would strengthen others. He chose to dig deeper rather than to be swept away in self pity.
When we have the joy of the Lord, we'll know it and so will others. Since joy is given by God and something that he wants us to have, we need to be joyful.
These morning messages are now available by email. Simply write me with you email address at schneider.nick@gmail.com, and I'll be happy to forward them to your in-box.
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