Something I think that God's really put on my heart for the past couple of months: joy. What exactly is joy? Why is it so important? For the longest time, I didn't even know how to begin answering those questions, and to be honest, didn't really think it mattered. I confess that I've always focused on other fruit of a Christian life, things that were seemingly more "applicable" to life - things like love, or kindness, or self-control. Still, I think it is no coincidence that joy is the second of the Fruit of the Spirit, preceded only by love. Even more, I don't think it's a surprise that God has led me to two verses that have been hugely encouraging for me in the past month or two, both of which have joy as a central theme:
"Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." (1 Thessalonians 5:16)
"Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer." (Romans 12:12)
It just struck me all of a sudden yesterday during church, because the gist of what my pastor was trying to say was that joy is the core nature of a redeemed child of God. Mark 2:18-22, which is what he preached on yesterday, has always kind of confused me. The part about not fasting when the bridegroom was with them, but fasting when he was taken away, and then the part about the wineskins - it just never made much sense to me. As my pastor explained it, fasting was traditionally only required by Jewish law on the Day of Atonement, when the high priest would enter the Holy of Holies and make a sacrifice. The fasting in this context was meant for the Israelites to mourn and grieve over the state of their sinfulness - the fact that this sacrifice/blood shed for their sin had to be made year after year, and look forward to the Redeemer who would wash away their sin once and for all. With this knowledge in mind, Jesus' words suddenly become clear - if the bridegroom, the Lamb who had come to be the perfect and completely sufficient sacrifice for all sin, was with us, then why on earth should we mourn? We should rejoice! The Light of the world has come; He will bear our sin on His shoulders and do away with it through His perfect blood. Joy is thus the result of Jesus with us, and cannot be manifest in any other way - no worldly happiness or material possession can offer us joy.
The funny thing about joy, I'm learning, is that it has nothing to do with emotion. Isn't that wonderful, though? To know that on your up days, and on your down days, and then on your downright AWFUL days, that you can still be joyful because the God you worship and serve and love is a God who is unchanging, a God who is sovereign, and a God who has already redeemed you and you can thus be completely secure in your salvation? When David committed adultery and murder, it took him a while to repent and be convicted of his sin. When he did repent, however, he wrote the beautiful Psalm 51 in response to his knowledge of God's saving grace. There is one verse that stands out to me particularly:
"Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me." (Psalm 51:12)
Truth be told, I've been so out of it recently. It feels like I've lost all the joy I used to have when reading Scripture, and my prayers feel awkward and strange. And then I think that I'm not trying hard enough, and so I try harder, and still end up discouraged because nothing changes. I would wrack my brain trying to think of unconfessed sin and offer prayers that were more and more half-hearted when it felt like God just wasn't there. As I sat in church yesterday, listening to my pastor say that the core nature of a Christian was joy, I was just practically in tears. It was like I finally got a glimpse of what God was trying to tell me all along, and I was just overwhelmed with love and gratitude, because I knew that 1) God was there with me (Matthew 28:20) and 2) I can be joyful in spite of my day-to-day feelings (James 1:2-4).
My pastor finished up with acknowledging that most of us will wake up some mornings and just not feel joyful. We all have crummy days. He gave us one simple piece of advice: "Confess sin, pray, praise, linger in the Word of God". Praising God in the midst of our trials - isn't this where songs like "When the Tears Fall" and "Blessed be Your Name" come out of? It seems so counterintuitive to be able to genuinely praise God when all we want to do is curl up in bed, wallow in self-pity, and shake our fists at the world, but remember this: "Jesus looked at them and said, 'With me this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.'" (Matthew 19:26)
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