Father, praise you for the inner power of joy that flows in me through Christ and through Christ alone.
I proposed to Leanne at Christmas. I was actually sick at the time and felt miserable, but when she said “yes,” my misery didn’t matter. I rejoiced, and my mom threw a big dinner party to celebrate. Later we had children. Upon receiving news that we were pregnant with child #1 and then #2, and then #3, we called our friends and family because we couldn’t help it. We were elated. And nine months later, when Charissa, Matthew, and Rebekah were born, we did the same thing again. Marriages and babies bring joy. Graduations bring joy. Promotions, awards, championships, scholarships, all these and more bring joy.
Joy is the most natural response to good news. Consequently, the people of Jesus have great joy because in Jesus they have great news. Their sin is wiped away. Death is destroyed. They have a Father who greatly loves them and who will provide their every need. They have a future and an inheritance that surpasses their wildest dreams. They have a purpose in God. They have peace.
All these benefits are ours in Christ, and, by themselves, they are reasons for great joy. If people rejoice when they pay off their mortgage, how much more ought they rejoice when their deepest debt is gone, and they are completely free for eternity? And still God’s people have an even bigger reason for joy than these blessings. They have Jesus. And because they have Jesus, they have His joy. “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full,” he said (Jn 15:11). Joy is a normal part of life with Jesus. It is a mark of a follower of Christ.
C.S. Lewis was surprised by this aspect of Christianity. He wasn’t expecting such joy, but there it was. Joni Eareckson Tada sings of God’s goodness from her wheelchair. Corrie Ten Boom rejoices in the God whose love she saw in the deepest, darkest hole of a Nazi concentration camp. Paul tells the Philippians to “rejoice in the Lord always,” and he does so while he is in chains in a prison cell.
You have see people who are outgoing and bubbly. On the outside they seem joyful, but that is not necessarily the joy of Christ. The joy of Christ transcends personality.
The joy of Christ is stronger than the sufferings of earth. It’s like Leanne saying “yes” when I was sick. Physically I was still sick. Her acceptance of my proposal did not heal my flu. I still had to suffer through it, but her answer gave me a different perspective on my sufferings. The news was so great that my view of suffering changed. The joy of Christ is this way. The sufferings of earth are real. God’s people still hurt and get sad. They wrestle with anger, bitterness, pain and sorrow, some more than others, but deep down, underneath the rejection, the cancer, the injustice and betrayal — down in the foundation of the heart lies the joy of Christ. It’s like an underground spring that is flowing, often unseen, waiting to bubble to the surface. The joy of Christ is not naïve. It is joy in the full face of the pain of earth. It is not a simplistic “Just be happy” mindset. It goes deeper than that. It flows from Christ, and because it flows from Christ, it flows from the very rock on which we stand. It sees the pain, but it also sees the glory that will dissolve all pain.
Some of God’s people see this joy more than others, but all of God’s people have access to it, even when they lose their job or their child.
