Find Your Joy***

The Holy One calls to me this morning. Thinking of last Sunday and the joy of gathering with those who share faith in Yeshua, I know Sundays are an important day in our week.  As Christians this day is not just a day to rest like God did during creation week.  For us it is also a day to remember and celebrate the greatest victory the world of humanity could ever know; the Resurrection of Jesus our Savior.  But Monday arrives and joy cannot be found. 

The Holy One speaks through the early morning brain fog and I hear a directive, “Find and maintain your joy”.

His words cut like a knife to circumcise my heart.  Obviously, there is something I am missing and a discipline I must begin to enact. Thus begins our back-and-forth exchange of unspoken thoughts.  The process of sanctification is anything but pretty.  It involves rolling up our spiritual sleeves and getting to all the corruption we don’t like to even think much less talk about.

The Holy Spirit continues and points out a sin pattern that needs to be corrected.    “Stop blame shifting your lack of joy over onto other people’s actions or the circumstances of life.”

First the flint knife and now the cold water that brings me to complete attention.

Despair seems to be widespread in these end times as hope for better days fades. And it is so true that we all have to battle for “joy”. There is a deep divide between joy and happiness.  Comfortable circumstances seem to be the criteria we all use to define “happy” but happy is not the joy of the Lord that is missing in so many of our lives today.  How can we be filled with joy when we are not “happy”?  Or can we experience one without the other?

Galatians 5:22 tells us. “But the fruit of the SPIRIT is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”   I notice that happiness is not on that list, so then I must conclude that joy is not dependent on happy circumstances and happy circumstances do not define or limit joy.

Joy is the fruit of the Holy Spirit in my life.  It is the evidence of His Presence and it is His life within me that is my source for joy.  I must come to admit that I cannot manufacture my own joy.  It always gets mixed up in the self-driven pursuit of my “happiness”.

The Lord takes me back to His word and His model as where to look for joy.  Hebrews 12:2 says, “looking unto Jesus, who is the author and finisher of our faith Who, for the joy that was set before Him, endured the Cross, despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

I must look to the Cross where Jesus died; the place of greatest suffering for any human body made up of flesh and bone.  For 6 hours one Friday, evil had his way with the Holy Son of God.  Evil used the Romans and the Jews to circumstantially torture the One we call “Savior”.   

Humanly speaking that was a most justifiable time to blame people and out of control circumstances for the agony He was suffering.  Yet we are told that our Lord Jesus was focused on the joy of what would ultimately come from the suffering and even as He despised the shame of it, He did not blame shift the reason.

Jesus kept to the mission which was to glorify His Heavenly Father and restore humanity back in relationship with our Creator God. Jesus looked beyond the people who nailed Him to the Cross and those who yelled “Crucify Him”.  Jesus looked beyond the evil that was tormenting and mocking His humiliation.  Jesus looked past all of that to the great eternal purpose and therein found His joy.

So, what does that mean to me?  Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things unseen.  To find my joy, I must look beyond the people who do evil and beyond the circumstances that weigh me down.  In faith I must look to Jesus while trusting in that Divine purpose for which I have been chosen to endure such people and circumstances and remain true to the mission:  To share the Truth about our Kingdom and our King with a lost and dying world.

Divine purpose to me means there is a reason for everything and I must glean that higher purpose out of the trials of life and the people through whom they come.  To blame evil people or the acts they do for my lack of joy is an insult to the Holy One who provides it. 

Faith and Joy seem to be intertwined.  Faith declares all is well because the Lord (not evil) is in control.  Joy is the feeling that follows the faith.  Perspective is the key to finding my joy.  Looking past what is evil to focus on the Lord's plan and His promise of the "good" to come will enable me to find my joy no matter what the immediate circumstance may dictate.  

I understand that this is a discipline of heart and mind and may not be acquired in a day, but as I continue to look to the Holy Spirit for His perspective, I will be able to see beyond the agony of today and see the ecstasy of tomorrow and like my Lord and Savior, therein find my joy.

The Holy Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?