God's Basic Premise

Some preach a ‘prosperity’ gospel telling people that all their troubles will be over when they give their lives to God through faith in Jesus Christ. That would be lovely, but it is not true. Scripture does not back it up. The story of Job verifies that even the most faithful believers can experience deep troubles. Verses like the following also show that Christians face various trials. Not only that, God uses those trials to test and mature our faith!

“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” (James 1:2–4)

Humanly speaking, most people tend to base their happiness and sense of well-being on external circumstances. People are happy if they have a good job, or a good day at work, or if their children are well behaved. Even those who suffer setbacks will say as long as they have their health, they are happy.

Job lost everything, including his health. He complained about his situation and about the unfair accusations of his friends. He was frustrated with the silence of God yet even could say:

“But he knows the way that I take; when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold.” (Job 23:10)

The basic premise is that eternal matters are God’s priority and He is far more concerned with my character than my comfort. He is teaching me to trust in Him only; He is the source of my well-being. In fact, the Holy Spirit can give joy no matter what is going on in my life.

One way I know is that the joy Jesus had did not depend on His circumstances. The Word of God points out that could face the cross and the horrible death of crucifixion without losing joy:

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:1–2)

Even on that awful day when He bore the sin of the world, my sin included, He looked at the shame of it with contempt and was instead focused on the joy that was His because He fully trusted His Father.

David also knew where his joy came from . . . 

 “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” (Psalm 16:11)

D. L. Moody quoted a friend who told him, “The world has yet to see what God can do to a man who is fully committed to Him.” Certainly a big part of what could be seen is that incredible joy, regardless of all that a fully committed person would face.

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Lord, there have been times when You eclipsed my trials with joy — giving me a glimpse of that fullness of joy that David knew regardless of the stress he was under. In today’s devotional, Tozer says we often allow trifling and minor incidents to disturb our fellowship with You. I cannot control Your flow of joy but I can say NO to all that blocks it. Perhaps the biggest is wanting to be happy all the time in that worldly sense where nothing is going wrong and I’m totally comfortable. Instead, grant me the grace to accept Your baseline and abound in joy even as affliction and trials come my way. 

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Today is 9/11. Those who survived experience nightmares still and have memories that haunt them continually. I spent much of today praying for God to give them peace.