Join in the Joy
Through the years, I have frequently preached about joy. It is more than an emotion (although it includes emotion); rather, it is a settled attitude, a stable and sturdy approach to life that focuses us on the things that matter now and forever. Joy is much greater and much more powerful than happiness, which is event or circumstance driven. There is nothing wrong with happiness. It is certainly better than unhappiness. Also, we have different personalities. For example, my wife is happy-go-lucky. Of course, she has every reason to be, being married to me. However, not everyone can be married to me. We need something more substantial than happiness; that something is joy. (I will be using this opening paragraph for each of the brief messages in this series. The following material will change daily.)
Yesterday, we saw from Romans 8:26 that God the Holy Spirit speaks out of His joy, speaking for us when our words of prayer are jumbled in our minds and evaporate before making it to our lips. This fact encourages us to remember that joy does not vanish even when our words do. Moreover, the Holy Spirit’s words on our behalf can become our own words. A week ago, we looked at I Peter 1:6 and found that joy is real not only in happiness but also in heaviness. Peter expands this thought in verses 7-9, using the lovely expression, “Ye rejoice with joy unspeakable.” Normally, “unspeakable” is negative: we think of “unspeakable violence,” “unspeakable acts,” and “unspeakable atrocities.” With God, this word is transformed into something good. Just as sorrows can sweep away our syllables, so can joy sweep over us, silencing us before the undeserved goodnesses of God granted gladly to us. May we follow the command of Psalm 46:10a: “Be still, and know that I am God.”