Again, revisiting that common theme throughout the New Testament “rejoice and be joyful in the Lord.” How does one become joyful in the Lord when it seems He is so far away from us? That is a valid question when it comes to how we live our lives.
I was confronted by
my wife some time ago, who told me that “I didn’t seem to have any joy in my life,” that
statement rocked me and caused me to re-evaluate the priorities of my faith. What does it look like to be joyful? This is a question I had to tackle when I was
going through tough times in my life, I kept asking that very question “where
is the joy” when I was living for Christ but didn’t have any joy about it.
What I
discovered is that joy doesn’t come from reading scripture, or doing things for
Jesus, like praying for the sick or performing service work, which I thought was
necessary for growth in the knowledge of Christ Jesus and with other brothers and
sisters. I found that joy was still unmistakably
absent from my life, and the more I did to fill my life with doing these type
of things for Jesus, the more distant He and I had become.
I met a devoted
Christian couple who began speaking into my life and telling me that I already had
all of Christ in me, and all I needed to do was to recognize that fact and
acknowledge it and then appropriate it.
It took many months for me to come to the awareness that I had left my
first love (Jesus) and had replaced Him with a works-based faith which was all about
me, rather than just receiving the good news that Jesus completed all of the
work for me on His cross.
I began to surrender all of my expectations and concepts about Jesus and just realized that I could rest at His feet and not work so hard at trying to pleasing Him.
I also realized He was already pleased with me and there was nothing more I could offer Him to make Him love me more, I just needed to rest with Him in His finished work.
I began to
become reacquainted with Jesus once again, but this time on a new level. Suddenly, I became aware that the burden of this works-based faith I had been carrying was
gone and my soul was at rest and was free and I was feeling as light as a feather. I began to see Jesus differently as a loving friend and as
my King once again, this began a deep interpersonal relationship with Him which
transformed my prayer life and catapulted me into a deeper spiritual life in Jesus.
What I had re-discovered is that
Jesus always receives me as I am, and I don’t have to become anything more for
Him to love me. I don’t have to be
spiritual or well versed in my prayers or scripture. I don’t have to please Him in any way
other than to just come to Him and rest in His arms and exhale and let out all
of the tension I had been carrying.
It is from
this place of rest I have begun to experience joy once again, joy which is
unspeakable because it is participating in His joy for me.
Paul makes
it very clear in the above verses that we are always to be joyful. What he is
really saying is we need to participate in the relational joy that Jesus has
for us, he states it twice to drive the point home that this is an essential
part of the relationship with Jesus.
He then
give us the formula to how to know this joy by treating others the way we would want
to be treated with considerate affection as Jesus treats us, and to put into practice
the relationship we have with Jesus to include others and demonstrate the love
of Christ has for us so that other lives may be influenced and touched.
And don’t worry about anything, but with a
grateful heart for what we have in Christ giving thanks praying for our
needs. Jesus already knows what we have
need of even before we ask Him, but we need to ask with thankfulness because a thankful attitude changes us and develops trust in His provision and at the same time it produces a humble heart before the Lord and others.
Then Paul
takes this thought way beyond to a different level by telling us that “God’s peace (which
is His presence) which is beyond anything that we could ever imagine will
stand guard over our thoughts and emotions through Christ Jesus.”
If you think
about that last sentence, Paul is telling us that God’s peace (presence) is
inexhaustible and has no limits, It inhabits everything to such a degree that it
is an endless supply. It will stand
guard over our thoughts and emotions.
God’s peace is protecting us from the
daily onslaught of thought warfare levied against us by our own mind and
subliminal attacks by the enemies of our soul.
Our emotional state is also held in check by God’s peace (presence),
we can place our complete confidence that His peace (presence) will always
be with us and never leave us. We can
trust our emotions, anger, sadness, joy, etc. to the Lord who will protect us
and will allow us to emote without judgment, nor is He surprised or shaken by our emotions. He knows our frame and how we are
made.
In fact, Jesus has more confidence in us than we do in ourselves, it is
recorded in Psalms 139:14 that we are amazing miracles of God’s creation:
"I will give thanks to you
because I have been so amazingly and miraculously made.
Your works are miraculous, and my soul is fully aware of this." Psalm 139:14 (GW)
May you be
blessed with the awareness of "the first love of Jesus” which is His peace (presence)
which is Good News that He has provided everything we need to live a life of Peace and Godliness through Him, all that is required of us is that we rest in His finished work. His Joy is the result.
Stephen
Barnett
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