“Whatever happens, my
dear brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord.” (Philippians 3:1); “Always be full of joy in
the Lord. I say it again—rejoice!” (Philippians 4:4)
Rejoice here is the
same word that is used in Matthew 2:10 where the Magi saw the star was leading
them to baby Jesus and they were overjoyed.
It was the fruit from searching for Jesus and finding Him. There was joy in standing in God’s will and seeing
His purposes divinely unfold before them.
They knew the significance of Jesus coming. How incredible and joy filled to be part of
the story in ushering forth that incredible era of Jesus coming to earth!
It is also used in
Matthew 5:12 to rejoice and exalt God when being persecuted because great is
your reward in heaven. Because the disciples had a greater purpose and desire
to be part of the story of God, they rejoiced in the midst of their current
sufferings, knowing that they were living for an eternal kingdom and eternal
purposes were being accomplished.
When we are
persecuted, it is because we are having impact in the Kingdom in bringing it
forth. There are opposing forces that
are pushing back. Our belief is to hope
and faith filled as we trust in the Lord and know we have the victory through
Him. We can rejoice with joy that Kingdom
purposes are coming forth and we have the honor and privilege to play a part in
it.
We also know the
Kingdom of God is a matter of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy
Spirit. It is not supposed to be a set
of laws we follow but a relationship with the Lord. In His presence is fullness of joy (Psalm
16:11). As we come to know Him and grow
in understanding of His heart, we will grow in joy. Joy is the Kingdom countenance of believers.
Before I was saved, I
remember seeing Christians whose face lit up with joy and feeling this was
always out of my reach. I was depressed
and oppressed. I couldn’t imagine what
it would be like but always desired this kind of joy. Only to find that, becoming saved, joy grew
in my life. Joy comes by living
according to the Kingdom of God.
Righteous living
according to the Kingdom of God, produces joy (Proverbs 10:28). As we follow the paths that the Lord leads
us upon, we will not only have the abundance of life that He promised, but our
lives will be filled with joy. Joy will
take root and grow as we grow in faith and following the Spirit of God.
Joy starts with
obedience. Psalm 119:1-3, starts with, “Joyful
are people of integrity who follow the instructions of the Lord. Joyful are those who obey His laws and search
for Him with all their hearts. They do
not compromise with evil and they walk only His paths.”
How often compromise
will eat away at joy in our lives. A
little here and a little there erodes the fullness of what God has for us and
eats at our relationship with Him. It is
like rust that seems to grow over time.
Then we wonder why we are less and less joyful.
It is because we are
relying on other things to satisfy us than His unfailing love. As we lean more and more on things of the world,
we will find that it erodes our trust in the Lord, the depth of our
relationship and the joy we hold for following Him. In the same way, as we lean into trust and
seeking Him, we find Him and it strengthens our obedience. We need to be
continually living into our relationship with the Lord. As we behold Him, we
lose compromise.
As we set our mind on
God and all His goodness, we can’t help but be flooded with His joy. Joy is found in following after the Lord as
there is abounding joy in His presence. As
we open His Word and search to follow after Him, we will have joy. When we hold His word in our heart and
meditate on it, we know from Psalm 119 that there is great joy and
rejoicing. We can find our delight in
the Word because it leads us in the path of planting seeds of righteousness.
Galatians 5:22-23 tells
us that “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” Joy is a fruit of the Spirit that comes
about from the Kingdom seeds of righteousness that we plant in our lives. As we are obedient to follow the Lord and His
will for our lives, these seeds will ultimately bear fruit of joy. There may be times we may feel like we are
going to burst with joy.
I have experienced
this for myself from prayer and surrender.
There have been times in my life where the joy of the Holy Spirit so
overflowed in my life that I thought I would burst. I could barely contain it and could not even
describe it. It was this intersection of
laboring and sowing seeds of righteousness through following the Holy Spirit,
the joy of His presence, and Kingdom purposes coming forth for others.
In this intersection,
there was joy unspeakable and full of glory.
When we press into Kingdom purposes not only for ourselves but for
others, there is an abounding joy that comes with it at significant times. Jesus
went to the cross, for the joy that was set before Him. And in 1 Thessalonians 2:19-20, Paul speaks
of the joy of seeing the church not only come to know Christ but to live out
the gospel. In the midst of the opposition
and persecution, it gave him immense joy to see them grow in faith.
There is the side of
not only experiencing joy and eating of
the fruit of it from our activities, but being intentional about positioning
ourselves for joy. Part of this is
rooted in the way we think and our belief systems. Paul goes on to say in Philippians 4:8 that
we should fix our thoughts on what is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, and
admirable. Whatever things that are excellent
and worthy of praise, dwell on these things.
For myself, sometimes
thoughts that do not align with the Kingdom of God and this creates
discouragement and compromise. This is especially
true for me where relationships have been impacted or I lack harmony in relationships. This will eat at me and drain my energy. I start to blame myself, think I am not good
enough or can’t do enough and become discouraged.
Then in this letting
it eat at me, I eat. Because my energy
and enthusiasm is being drained by the way that I am thinking, I try to eat to
gain energy. This only makes me lethargic
and drains me further. I just start
feeling over tired, counting the cost, and feeling stuck as I stay in this
place of compromise. I may even miss great opportunities because of the lack of
energy, blame fasting and I just can’t win. I feel hopeless.
I dwell on a negative
thing that happened in my relationship and relive it over and over again
thinking about how I can fix it, get along better, or just my frustration with
it. I know I am also not seeing them
rightly according to the way God sees them.
Someone once told me, prophesy over someone and see if you can stay in
judgement or anger with them. Wanting the best for someone is hard for me
when I feel slighted, rejected and judged by them. Rather than looking at the goodness of God
and being thankful that He makes a way for me and gives me favor, I look at my
faults and their faults and can be hard on myself and them for them. I have a desire in my heart to do things well
but sometimes feel it is beyond me.
Challenging our
beliefs that do not align with the Word of God, the truth, will lead to greater
joy in our lives. We are to worship the
Lord in Spirit and truth. Truth is who
He is, our relationship to Him and who we are created to be. When our beliefs
do not line up with the Word and we live in doubt, criticalness about ourselves
and others, self-pity, grumbling, complaining, or offense, there are some
underlying beliefs that most likely do not align with God and are stealing our
joy.
1 Peter 1:8 says, “Though
you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now,
you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy.”
What we believe will
impact the level of joy in our lives. There
is great joy to be found in the Kingdom.
Where we do not have this joy is a signal to us that our thoughts might
not be lining up with the Kingdom of God.
Let me say it another way, how could we possibly not be filled with joy
when see just how good we have it?
Let me just give you
one verse that speaks to this. Jesus says
in Mark 9:23, “All things are possible for those who believe.” What?
We live not in limitations but in possibilities. Not only possibilities but the impossible
being a possibility. If we really think
about this, how joy filled is that?
Your worst situation is
an opportunity for a miracle and breakthrough.
You are never stuck or defeated. You are never without options, helpless,
or hopeless. You are never
defeated. You are never unequipped. You have all that you need and more than
enough help. Your life has glorious possibilities
beyond what you could ask or imagine.
I am currently going
through a training on renewing my mind and finding that challenging my beliefs
leads to greater joy. As I replace lies
with truth, I experience more and more of the atmosphere of joy. Emotions flow from what we believe. As we realign our belief with the Kingdom of
God and His truth, it brings joy. We
begin to see more like Caleb and Joshua from a perspective of possibilities rather
than hopelessness or discouragement. We
can live in expectation of good in His presence because we know His love for
us.
Lord, help us where we have unbelief or are
believing lies. Help us to see as you
see. And anywhere we are stuck, especially
as it relates to relationships, help us get freedom. Let us
love others better and see them with your eyes. Give us joy in every encounter and help us
to let go of being task focused.
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