Key to Joy

Yesterday was exhausting yet a total delight. The quilt guild I belong to held their show of over 200 incredible quilts, with venders, door prizes, a featured quilter, a memorial booth honoring those who have died, and the community outreach booth where I served for a couple hours. This is the division that receives donated materials and makes quilts for needy people.

In my first trip around the space (a well-lit curling rink) I met dozens of people that I’ve not seen for months, even years. We had joyful conversations and that alone was the most obvious reason that the Lord prompted me to attend and to serve in a small way. I thank Him for such a blessed experience.

Interesting that today’s devotional reading is about His zeal — He wants me to serve Him in gladness. John Piper says it and quotes examples from the Bible. One of them is a surprise. I have read it many times and didn’t realize the impact…

Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart, because of the abundance of all things, therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger and thirst, in nakedness, and lacking everything. And he will put a yoke of iron on your neck until he has destroyed you. (Deuteronomy 28:47–48)

This is loaded with meaning. Serving the Lord involves being filled with His Spirit. Many other passages verify that I cannot do the will of God unless I am abiding in Him and unless He is filling me with what I need to do it. Also, the fruit of the Spirit is joy — the indicator of being filled. I keep saying that if that joy is not there, I’ve taken over the control of my life. Joy is the mark of being Spirit-filled. The above verses tell the results… if I’m not joyful in serving God then I am serving something else. Not only that, without the blessing of the Holy Spirit, my life will be empty and my efforts for whatever I am doing will wear me out.

All of this is reflected in the words of Jesus. He calls those who fall away into joyless and tiresome work:

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28–30)

Of course the yoke is easy for when I take it. Joy comes with the burdens that God gives. I recall one time walking and praying and complaining about my responsibilities. I was feeling heavily laden and not happy about it. As I grumbled, the Lord whispered to me: “Get out of My to-do list” — and I burst out laughing. His words released me and instantly restored my joy.

This is not about being happy. Circumstances may not change and happiness is based on circumstances. Joy is different, supernatural. It is released from a trusting heart by the Spirit of God who lives there, regardless of the circumstances. Why is that so? In a passage about using spiritual gifts, the NT explains why:

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. (1 Peter 4:10–11)

PRAY: Oh Lord, You are amazing. No other master, boss, god, or even my own self can rule my life and include joy as the main indicator that I’m serving the right or the best way — only You. Yesterday I went to the show because You put it on my heart to go, to serve, and it was a day of incredible joy in talking with others. The quilts were spectacular, yet that joy came from You and it involved serving people. My body became very tired in all the activity, but You made my heart sing. Thank You for the joy You give! 

The Great Physician knows how to cure me...

Slept well but woke up in a bad mood. I don’t like marble floors, opulent surroundings, rich food, heat and humidity, and a vacation filled with things to do. I just want to sit in the shade and read a book, or go for a long walk on the beach and enjoy a breeze and the shore birds. All about me and my I wants. Selfish and annoyed with all the selfish people around me. Go away. A deserted island would be ideal.

Today’s reading was no help. It was written for those who have no clue about the meaning of faith. I know what it means, so I went to my library and found this:

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. (1 Peter 4:10–11)

This command from Jesus immediately restored my sense of why I am here. It is not to self-indulge but to serve Him by serving others, and glorify Him – even if others ignore me, or disregard anything I do or say on His behalf.

Another devotional speaks too, one that describes the difference between hypocrites and sincere souls. It says:

Sincere have learned to have a holy lack of confidence in themselves, also in their own self-examination. Therefore they ask the Lord to try them, as the psalmist did: “Search me, O God, and know my heart!… And see if there be any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting!” (Psalm 139:23-24) And God hears their prayer and points now to one, now to another thing in their lives which is contrary to the will of God. The result is sorrow, distress, and shame. And the soul’s hunger and thirst for grace is kept alive, yes, experiences a normal growth. Faith fights the good fight and keeps healthy and sound. The cross becomes a place of refuge.

How true. Just a few lines turned me from my desires for this vacation to yielding to Christ.

PRAY: Jesus, You are well aware of the rest I need and how best to give it to me. And it does not come from being contrary to You. That only makes me more tired and frustrated. Thank You for a speedy diagnosis and an even speedier change in my thinking and in my desires of what I’m to do while here in this place.

What to do with your ornaments . . .

 

READ Exodus 33-36

One of the most delightful courses taken in seminary taught me how to see Christ in the Old Testament. The professor was centered on Jesus and could point out His presence from many passages. Today, I see a pattern of in the OT that parallels what Jesus does in saving people and building His church, the Body of Christ, as described in the NT.

One detail stands out; the OT saints had heard the commandments and were chastened for breaking them. They were ready to move on when the Lord said to Moses:

“Depart; go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘To your offspring I will give it.’ I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.” When the people heard this disastrous word, they mourned, and no one put on his ornaments. For the Lord had said to Moses, “Say to the people of Israel, ‘You are a stiff-necked people; if for a single moment I should go up among you, I would consume you. So now take off your ornaments, that I may know what to do with you.’ ” Therefore the people of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments, from Mount Horeb onward. (Exodus 33:1–6)

Ornaments are what people put on themselves, sometimes for beauty, sometimes to display their wealth. It’s not too hard to see them as symbols of self-effort, self-aggrandizement, the things I do to make myself look good and to show off my skills and abilities. The NT is filled with instructions to “take off” or “put off” all the stuff of self. This is an important part of my journey with God.

After that, the people were motivated by God to give what they had toward building the tabernacle. Among the contributions were “brooches and earrings and signet rings and armlets, all sorts of gold objects” and other items including skills, whatever their hearts moved them to bring as a freewill offering to the Lord. (Exodus 35:20–29) This giving continued until Moses had to stop them for “the craftsmen who were doing every sort of task on the sanctuary came, each from the task that he was doing, and said to Moses, ‘The people bring much more than enough for doing the work that the Lord has commanded us to do.’ So Moses gave command, and word was proclaimed throughout the camp, ‘Let no man or woman do anything more for the contribution for the sanctuary.’ So the people were restrained from bringing.” (Exodus 36:3–6)

These craftsmen were also appointed by God who “filled them with the Spirit of God, with skill, with intelligence, with knowledge, and with all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold and silver and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, for work in every skilled craft. And he has inspired him to teach . . . .” (Exodus 35:30–35)

In building the body of Christ, the NT speaks of the Holy Spirit giving gifts for the task. It says,

For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them . . . . (Romans 12:3ff)

It also says God gifted His Body with “the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:11–13) Just as He gave workmen to use the gifts of His people in the OT, some of which had been used before for selfish reasons. God’s plan for our skills, our “ornaments” is this:

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. (1 Peter 4:10–11)

For me: Simple — use whatever God gives me to build His Body, be a blessing to others, and to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ.