The JOY of the LORD
Just what is... the 'joy of the Lord?'
Is it a feeling? An emotion?
Or is it something greater than those fleeting sensations?
Can we have/ possess/ walk in – the joy of the Lord, without necessarily feeling happy? I believe that when Paul and Silas were cast into the prison in Acts 16, they were filled with the joy of the Lord, but it was not because their lives were rosy.... The words to an old hymn we used to sing in church came to me.... “Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in his wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of his glory and grace”. After being beaten, they could pray and sing, because of WHO Christ was... IN them.
Paul states in Acts 20:24 “But to me my life is nothing; I am not afraid. I desire only that I may finish (complete) my course (race) with joy (gladness) and the ministry (attendance, as a servant) which I have received of our Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.”
(Received: to take , to get hold of; to have offered to one; to seize or remove]): - accept, + be amazed, assay, attain, bring, X when I call, catch, come on (X unto), + forget, have, hold, obtain, receive (X after), take (away, up).
(Testify: to be a witness, that is, testify: - charge, give [evidence], bear record, have (obtain, of) good (honest) report, be well reported of, testify, give (have) testimony, (be, bear, give, obtain) witness).
In the natural, we look at the things around us, the things we are involved in, our ministries, our labors. These 'things' are but a small part of the course set before us. Our calling is to:
“...be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” Romans 12:2. All of our lives we have excelled at conforming to the doctrines of men; we have striven to accumulate more and more spiritual knowledge; but have we picked up our cross and followed Christ? Have our thoughts been replaced with His thoughts? Have our desires become one with His desires? In our own strength and understanding, we can only clean up the outside of the cup; we can put on all manner of pious attitudes and actions. Only the Holy Spirit can expose those things hidden deep within our own hearts; the attitudes and prejudices we hold. The real test comes when we are criticized; how do we respond? Can we still walk in love, when all hell is coming against us? Jesus did.
“Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world” 1 John 4:1. And yes, we are called to be as HE is in this world!
“That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death” Philippians 3:10.
“And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening (life giving) spirit” 1 Corinthians 15:45. John 3:6 “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” To take up our cross and follow Christ... is to daily crucify our flesh, with all of its lusts and vanities, and to seek after the things that are of the Spirit of God. This alone will crucify our flesh, because our flesh cannot walk in love when it feels threatened. It will either justify itself, or strike back, or both; but it will not turn the other cheek and forgive.
“God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord” 1 Corinthians 1:9.
We would do well to consider just what we are called to my friends; what we can expect our 'course' to be like. “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not” Isaiah 53:3. Jesus said in John 15:18 “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.” And in John 15:25 “But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause.”
The combination of suffering and joy sounds like a complete contradiction to the natural mind. God's ways are not man's ways. What is spirit is spirit and what is flesh is flesh. God's wisdom is foolishness to the natural man, and he cannot comprehend it, for it can only be spiritually discerned. Yet we have this charge my friends...
“Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy (delight, gladness) that was set before him endured the cross (exposure to death, that is, self denial), despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God” Hebrews 12:2.
Are you seeing the connection between entering into the REST – as being intricately connected to walking in the 'joy of the Lord' yet? This JOY is not based on circumstance or feeling; it is based on God's faithfulness! On 'knowing HIM' that called us. I saw this quote this morning “The joy that is being attached to the natural love is partial, but the joy that is being attached to the Love of God is fullness of joy.”
It's all about loving Him that first loved us; no matter what!
“Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is” 1 John 3:2.
Are we seeing HIM yet? The very same JOY is set before us. Will we endure our cross? “He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal” John 12:25. This bears repeating... “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death” Philippians 3:10.
This is the joy that is set before us!
Amen & Amen
Cathy Morris
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