God reveals Himself in my JOY!

 

Today’s devotional had nothing for me so I looked in a more recent publication where Piper writes about the rare teaching of Jonathon Edwards, a man who taught a rarely heard solution to all Christian problems. Piper’s classic “The Pleasures of God” just before the one about Edwards, and has encouraged many believers. It describes what Edwards taught, that our focus needs to be simply enjoying God for who He is and how I need to love the Lord for His own greatness and beauty. I also must distinguish it from love that delights only in His gifts. It is love in which my pleasure is in God himself.

This is a vital issue. How easily I love health, prosperity, answered prayers, warm fellowship, all the good things God blesses me with, but where is my joy if these are withheld? Does it fly out the window and leave me feeling unloved, not cared about? Yesterday I spent the afternoon with a few friends and came home sad, telling hubby that if I had not been there, no one would have missed me. Yikes. Joy in God? Or joy in His blessings?

It is easy to write about the basics of the gospel, about God’s glorious perfections, man’s fallen nature, the wonders of redemptive history, the magnificent work of redemption in Christ, the saving and sanctifying work of grace, our Christian conflict with the world, the flesh, and the devil, and our hope of everlasting joy with our Lord, but much harder to live it. 

I don’t what to be a hypocrite — all talk and no do. I want the mind-shaping knowledge and the transforming enjoyment of God and His glory. I don’t want my knowledge of Him to rest lightly on me as it does on so many. One person says, “It is this God, majestic and holy in his being, this God whose love knows no bounds because his holiness knows no limits, who has disappeared from the modern evangelical world.” I don’t want that, and now see how deeply revival is needed, but it must start with me.

God does everything that He does—absolutely everything—for the sake of displaying His glory. He is the beginning, the middle, and the end of all things. Nothing exists or remains without His word. Everything has its reason for existing and nothing can be understood apart from Him. All understandings that leave Him out are superficial understandings since they leave out the most important reality in the universe. This is stated in what I read, and I believe it. This needs to be more than that faith but also action. I must share it for declaring His glory is the purpose behind why He created the universe. Edwards stated it something like this: 

God is glorified by appearing and revealing Himself in His Son, who is the brightness of His glory. He also enjoys and delights in Himself, by flowing forth in His Holy Spirit. He also glorifies Himself by appearing to our understanding and by communicating Himself to our hearts. In other words, when I rejoice and delight in His revealing of Himself, He is glorified, not only that His glory is seen, but rejoiced in my mind and heart, and that glory shines out to all those around me. 

Only hypocrites make ‘self’ the foundation of their joy, but a true follower of Jesus Christ is inexpressibly pleased and delighted with the glorious nature of God. This is vital for I must deny self, “choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.” (Hebrews 11:25) to walk with Him: “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) That is to say, self-life is the cause of all sorrow and self-denial “destroys the root of sorrow.” Consider these verses:

Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. (Matthew 5:11)
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. (James 1:2–3)
Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. (Acts 5:41)
For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. (Hebrews 10:34)
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 12:2)

The pursuit of His joy doesn’t contradict suffering — it carries it. This joy is a faith matter, not walking by sight that perceives only the comfortable stuff as good:

Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, (1 Peter 1:8)

PRAY: Jesus, for years Christians have been told not to let emotions control our lives, yet this is an error. Joy indicates the power and fruit of the Holy Spirit. If joy is missing then the Holy Spirit is not filling me. I’m not to seek joy any other way. That would be idolatry. And 1 John 1:9 always tells me what to do if joy is missing. Now You show me again the deep reason why joy is so vital — it is the way to display Your glory.

Jesus first loved me . . .

When my sister died, everyone at her funeral spoke of how she loved Jesus. Had she been there, she would have talked about how much Jesus loved her.

On a human level, knowing someone loves me changes how I think about life and about myself. At the very least, I want to show that person appreciation. At best, I will love in return.

Today’s devotional starts with this verse:

Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, (1 Peter 1:8)

Then it says that fellowship with Christ is built on love, trust, and obedience. It goes on to say that the love in that verse is a choice, a matter of the will and we prove our love for Him by doing what He says. This is affirmed by two verses from John 14: “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments . . . . He who does not love Me does not keep My words” (vv. 15, 24) and repeats the idea that to have fellowship with Christ is to love and obey Him.

I’m not settled with that order of cause and effect because John also wrote:

In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. (1 John 4:10–12)

God started this relationship by loving me, sending Jesus to die for me, showing me that I need Him, making His love known to me. He wooed me until I finally realized the extent of His love and the depth of my unworthiness. Only then did fellowship and obedience begin to happen. I didn’t make that fellowship a reality by obeying Him; He makes it a reality by loving me and doing the things that love does. If our relationship and fellowship required my trust and obedience, then when I doubted Him or sinned in some way, I could not count on Him to be there for me when confession and repentance were needed.

This relationship cannot depend too much on me. I am not my Savior, Jesus is. I’m told to ask God to teach me how to love and trust Him more faithfully and thank Him for the joy that comes as I do. I can be open to His teaching, to increased faith, and to His amazing joy, but I cannot make those things happen. Love is a response to His love. So also is obedience.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. (Proverbs 3:5–6)

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8–9)

PRAY: Lord, to get this right, I cannot take credit for increased fellowship with You. It is an amazing grace to know You, to realize You love me, to have a heart to obey, to walk and talk with You. If there is any good in me, it comes from You, not from my choice to being tuned in to Your will. “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20) Don’t ever let me take credit for anything You have done, or feed my pride and become self-righteous — because all that I have is Your doing.

PONDER: Read Romans 1-11, looking for how salvation works.

 

 

Joy from Jesus

 

A man in our church is always joyful. BT has several medical issues that are painful, but he is always smiling and saying ‘just fine’ with contagious joy. He shares that his joy isn’t about physical comfort.

The Bible is clear; the source of joy is the Holy Spirit, a joy beyond the usual feel-good emotion that comes with successes or good health or any other external source. It is a deep sense of well-being that God is in control. It is like the “peace of God which surpasses all understanding” in Philippians 4:7. It even comes as a surprise and can be ours when life is filled with problems. It delivers a sense of God, of stability, and is sometimes so strong that it can make us feel giddy.

The Bible tells us to be filled with the Spirit (see Ephesians 5:18) because He wants us to share in His joy and only the Holy Spirit can give it to us:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. (Galatians 5:22–23)

Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory. (1 Peter 1:8)

The Spirit gives this joy and peace to the point that if we are not filled, we do not experience or share in this ‘fruit’ and instead feel something else. The OT speaks of that inner turmoil this way: “But they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit; therefore, he turned to be their enemy, and himself fought against them.” (Isaiah 63:10)

In the NT, God says we must not “grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption” (Ephesians 4:30) nor “quench the Spirit” (1 Thessalonians 5:19). From personal experience, I know that when He is grieved, so am I, and when He is quenched, the fruit He produces is gone, particularly the joy, but also the other manifestations of His fullness. This was the experience of David when he sinned with Bathsheba and later prayed that God would not put him out of His presence or take the Holy Spirit from him, but would “Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.” (Psalm 51:12)

Joy’s sustaining power is described in Acts 13 when the disciples were persecuted and driven out of Antioch. “But they shook off the dust from their feet against them and went to Iconium. And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 13:51–52)

Later Paul was put in prison and wrote to those concerned about him: “Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. Likewise, you also should be glad and rejoice with me.” (Philippians 2:17–18) Like our friend BT, he understood that God’s joy is not about circumstances.

But joy is about obedience, as the ‘do not grieve’ and ‘do not quench’ verses suggest. What makes the Spirit grieve or stifle His activity? Disobedience, selfishness, sin — all those attitudes and actions that are opposed to His fruit of love, joy, peace, etc. I know that if my joy is gone, I’ve something to confess, a sin that has blocked the Spirit from producing the fruit of joy in me. Instead, I feel His grief and sorrow.

Much of Christendom and all of those outside of Christ depend on externals for joy, not realizing that the joy of the Lord is not the same as the glee of success. This joy is a deep sense that God is in control, no matter what is happening. That is why James could write this outrageous statement:

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. (James 1:2–3)

All joy in trials? Our friend BT knows it. It can happen, not because of any other reason than learning to drop self-effort and disobedience and be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Lord, sometimes I don’t even notice Your joy has left. I can get so wrapped up in whatever is going on that I miss realizing that I’m no longer trusting You or that I have an ungodly attitude, or have said, done, or even thought things contrary to Your will. May Your Spirit strengthen my discernment of personal sin, encourage me to keep short accounts with You, and increase my godliness. This isn’t just about joy, but about loving others and being at peace — with all those attitudes and behavior that glorifies You.

READ: Philippians noting what it says about joy. Also consider what I rely on for joy and what robs me of it the most. Get on my knees!