The Greatest Joy

Last night my knee was bothering me and I complained to God that unless this was healed, I could not go on. This morning He rebukes me for idolatry of good health and comfort. I can easily criticize others for making comfort their god, but He wants me to look in the mirror. I can easily write how God is enough, no matter what, but He shows me that when the ‘no matter what’ is painful, I’m full of hot air. I know the facts — God is enough — but when push comes to shove, emotions so easily pull the train and faith becomes the caboose or gets left behind.

He speaks with this statement: Our souls are of such a divine origin that no other joy but God can ever satisfy them. God made the soul for this high destiny, and His object, therefore, in all the discipline and training of life, is to bring us to the place where we will find our joy in Him alone.

To do that, He must “stain our pleasant pictures and thwart and disappoint our brightest anticipations. He detaches us from all else that He may attach us to himself.” This is not God being mean or unkind. He wants me to be truly joyful in Him, not in “the good life” or His many blessings.

As today’s devotional says, this does not mean that all my friends must die or my prosperity will be taken away, but that my joy will not come from inner or outward causes. Only from Him. He wants me to come to the end of everything that is not God in order to find my joy in Him alone.

It will be said on that day, “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the Lord; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.” (Isaiah 25:9)

I’ve been looking to Him to give me joy and He is waiting for me to get this right, to seek Him for joy, not seek well-being or anything else to make me joyful. His disciplines are leading me to this:

Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy, and I will praise you with the lyre, O God, my God. (Psalm 43:4)

Again, today’s devotional sums it up well. I know that God is always seeking to make Himself my “exceeding joy” but until I have been detached from all earthly joys and am ready to find my joy in Him alone, I must still wait for Him. I was assuming the delay was God’s, but realize that it is God who is waiting for me.

PRAY: Jesus, in years of Bible study, much of my slow learning is because I tend to rely on myself, a pitiful excuse for being slow and stubborn, for thinking I know better than You. You show me over and over that self is dead and I need to let that fact be part of what pulls me through the years. You make me love the verses that say I am alive in You, yet living them is another story. Some say that “letting go and letting God” is a Christian cliche, but reality, it is a huge part of being able to experience Your great joy. Forgive me for holding on to my ideas of what will make me happy and enable me to rest in You, my greatest joy.

 

The key is joy . . .

 

 

READ Ecclesiastes 5–8

God uses Solomon’s book of wisdom to speak to me today. We have a church picnic right after our worship service. I’m not great with small talk and have entertained the thought of staying home. However God says this: “Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil. Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few . . . .” (Ecclesiastes 5:1–3) His advice for the worship service and the picnic is simple; don’t worry about talking — just listen!

A more sobering thought is an issue that comes with age; life can seem pointless. It has bothered me for a few days. As some say, like is: ‘get up, work, eat, sleep, get up, work, eat, sleep, then you die.’ Solomon’s book calls this “vanity” — a life without meaning. God speaks to this also . . .

Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot. Everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them, and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toil—this is the gift of God. For he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart. (Ecclesiastes 5:18–20)

I can relate. I’ve always lived ‘in the moment’ and not in the past. I remember incidents when they are brought up, but for the most part, my thoughts are in the ‘now’ and because of God’s grace, this gift of joy that Solomon writes about has occupied my heart. It is okay to not “much remember” when the Lord grants the ability to accept my lot in life and rejoice in the work He gives.

This is not true for everyone. Solomon realized that and wrote:

There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it lies heavy on mankind: a man to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, so that he lacks nothing of all that he desires, yet God does not give him power to enjoy them, but a stranger enjoys them. This is vanity; it is a grievous evil. If a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not satisfied with life’s good things, and he also has no burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he. For it comes in vanity and goes in darkness, and in darkness its name is covered. Moreover, it has not seen the sun or known anything, yet it finds rest rather than he. Even though he should live a thousand years twice over, yet enjoy no good—do not all go to the one place? (Ecclesiastes 6:1–6)

I am surrounded by many who do not enjoy life or are not thankful for what they have, sad people, and I am sad for them. I know how falling into ‘wanting more’ or being unthankful can make me sad. This is not the way to live. What is the point of life if sorrow is all a person experiences? However, Solomon says a truth that contradicts the usual idea about sorrow. He says . . .

Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of face the heart is made glad . . . . It is better for a man to hear the rebuke of the wise than to hear the song of fools. (Ecclesiastes 7:3; 5)

Why is that? It has been my experience with sorrow that the Lord uses it to make me think about what is worthy of joy and what is vanity. He shows me that joy is not in temporal blessings. I can be happy when things go well, but it is the “song of fools” to think that is the only way to be happy. Only the joy that Jesus gives lasts, through good times and sad times of trial and loss. As Solomon says: “In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other . . . .” (Ecclesiastes 7:14)

This wise man commends joy, “for man has nothing better under the sun but to eat and drink and be joyful, for this will go with him in his toil through the days of his life that God has given him . . . .” (Ecclesiastes 8:15) And that is the bottom line; God gives joy and I can choose to receive it rather than decide to feel sorry for myself because of life’s challenges. They might be small, such as feeling awkward about chatting with others or large, such a losing a dear one. But joy is available from the One who gives it and who tells me to “Rejoice always” and for that, I thank You, Jesus.