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.)
In the last six weeks, we have seen that joy is central to the character of God. Thus, joy is shared within the Triune Godhead and communicated to us by Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We looked at Nehemiah 8:10, which can be translated, “The joy of the Lord is your mountaintop.” Isaiah 12:2-3 adds to this teaching, especially the sentence, “The Lord Yahweh is my strength and my song.” We can rightly say that God is our mountaintop and our music! Yesterday, we considered the need to express our joy openly, particularly by speaking and singing about heaven. The context here is not about heaven directly, but it is about the return of Jesus to Israel as their Messiah. I do not personally know anyone in the nation of Israel, but I will gladly join with the prophet Isaiah in singing about Israel’s future redemption. The more we open God’s Word and read His promises, the easier it is for us to open up with expressions of joy. You and I do not need to be the immediate beneficiaries of God’s goodness in order to break out in joyful praise; we can and should join in the joy of others.