Psalm 16:10-11 - You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
Have you ever noticed that one day your “joy meter” seems to be full and all is well with the world and even as soon as the next day you feel the complete opposite? I know that this is true of my own life. When I actually take the time to think about my change of heart I can often blame it on a trial, an uncontrollable circumstance or even my mood. But all these things revolve around one thing…me. MY trial has taken away my joy, MY circumstance is influencing my feelings, MY gloomy mood is normal and I will come through it. It is true that there are enemies of joy all around us and in us, but there is a remedy…
Have you ever noticed that one day your “joy meter” seems to be full and all is well with the world and even as soon as the next day you feel the complete opposite? I know that this is true of my own life. When I actually take the time to think about my change of heart I can often blame it on a trial, an uncontrollable circumstance or even my mood. But all these things revolve around one thing…me. MY trial has taken away my joy, MY circumstance is influencing my feelings, MY gloomy mood is normal and I will come through it. It is true that there are enemies of joy all around us and in us, but there is a remedy…
“Here in the cross is where every enemy of joy is overcome: divine wrath, as he becomes a curse for us; real guilt, as he becomes forgiveness for us; lawbreaking, as he becomes righteousness for us; estrangement from God, as he becomes reconciliation for us; slavery to Satan, as he becomes redemption for us; bondage to sin, as he becomes liberation for us; pangs of conscience, as he becomes cleansing for us; death, as he becomes the resurrection for us; hell, as he becomes eternal life for us.”- Charles Spurgeon
Psalm 71:23 - My lips will shout for joy, when I sing praises to you; my soul also, which you have redeemed.
When I take the time each morning to inform my heart and mind about the truth of the gospel, everything else fades into the background and the Cross becomes central.
“…preaching the gospel to ourselves every day reminds us that we are indeed sinners in need of God’s grace….It helps us to consciously renounce any confidence in our own goodness as a means of meriting God’s blessing on our lives. Perhaps more importantly, though, preaching the gospel to ourselves every day gives us hope, joy, and courage. The good news that our sins are forgiven because of Christ’s death fills our hearts with joy, gives us courage to face the day, and offers us hope that God’s favor will rest upon us, not because we are good, but because we are in Christ." – Jerry Bridges
When the weights and burdens of trials, the mundane moments of life or the sting of our sin overwhelm us, we can remind ourselves that our greatest need has already been met. The truth of the gospel gives us hope, joy and courage. We have this not because we deserve it or have earned it, but because we are in Christ. Like my mom said at our ladies meeting on Sunday, "in light of what has been done for us, we have no reason to not be joyful people". When the cares of life start to rob my joy, I need to fix my eyes on the cross, because that is where my past, present and future are bound up in.
Psalm 68:3 - But the righteous shall be glad; they shall exult before God; they shall be jubilant with joy!
2 comments:
This post was VERY timely for me! Thanks so much for the encouraging words!
I have been engrossed for over a half a year in writing about what happened when Jesus Christ died on the cross and so my heart more than ever beats with fiery zeal for the gospel. I have come to know so much better and clearer that love for God is chiefly, above all things, cultivated in how well we see that Jesus Christ has forgiven us of so much sin. The more I realize the death of hell from which I have been reused from and the height of Heavens love to which I have been saved too, the more I discover I find the greatest source of Love: both of which I feel coming to me and that of which I feel toward: for you need both in order to know the greatest purity of loves pleasure.
Luke 7:47, “Her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.” Herein do we both know the greatest height of experiencing God’s merciful love to us and to have our hearts overflowing with the greatest pleasure of experiencing the highest amount of love swelling up our hearts to an object: by faith seeing how much, Jesus Christ on the cross, has saved us and forgiven us. This is none other than what Paul charges the church of Philippi as the greatest priority of accomplishing when he returns: “stand firm striving for the faith of the gospel.”
Oh how easy is it for us Christians to think we have arrived in our faith in the gospel and suppose we now move on to other more mature Christian things, when in fact daily growing in our faith and treasuring of Jesus Christ crucified is the greatest maturity, on earth, that we can obtain. For herein is none other than that secret well of fresh water, able to bring enjoyment to its partaker with every drink, who’s secret key is faith in the gospel. If only we could drink from this gospel of Jesus more often, seeing that both: it brings true peace and happiness, and that it is free for all whom only but believe. How easy has Jesus Christ made the secret of happiness for us, yet the devil tries so hard to make it look so complicated.
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