Walk With Him Wednesday: Joy, Part 2

I'm participating again this week in Ann Voskamp's Walk With Him Wednesday. 

For the next 2 weeks: The Practice of Joy…. What does it mean to choose Crazy Joy? How do we authentically walk through hard times? How do practice the “gigantic secret” of Christians?  We look forward to your Scripture study, stories, encouragement….

Last week we discussed how to access joy (read Part 1 here) through a vibrant relationship with the Lord. We learned that we have to pursue an on-going union with Him through Bible reading and Bible study, through prayer, and through worship (psalms, praises and songs). His presence brings us joy, so we must remain in Him to access joy.

Let me use the next three paragraphs to back up for the benefit of newer believers, or for those seeking the Lord.

How does one access God?

We can only go to the Lord through faith in the saving blood of Jesus Christ. Before the forgiveness of our sins through Jesus' blood, we were unrighteous. God can't accept us that way, but still, he loved us. He wanted union with us. The solution to union with God--the solution the whole Bible points to--is Jesus Christ...the lamb that was slain. To become righteous, we must accept on faith that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and that his blood covered all sin, past, present, and future.

We can't hold the view that Christ died just for original sin, leaving us to work out the rest of our salvation with good works. This is a common view...one I held until the age of 31. Please know that believing this won't save you. In the end, nothing but frustration and pain come from a works view of salvation. You can never be good enough, never perform enough good deeds, no matter how determined you are. Only Christ walked this earth in perfection.

We are made acceptable and pleasing to Him, for the first time, through the righteousness imputed to us. When Christ gave up his spirit on the cross, it was finished. If you believe you have to add to his work in some way, through reading and believing in another book, through praying to another entity, through ongoing good works, or through some sort of purgatory after you die...you believe in a false gospel and you are not saved. You must take it on faith that when Christ died, it was enough to satisfy God. Your sins are forgiven through faith in his blood. You are righteous, and you can go to the Father. You are His, your debt paid in full.

This takes humility. Going to God as a beggar, admitting that without Him you're bankrupt and always will be, takes coming to the end of yourself.

Do it now. Give up having it your own way.

Did you say a salvation prayer at one time, but you still don't feel joy? Picture a beautifully wrapped gift. Someone knocks on your door and presents it to you, telling you it will save you, bring you joy, make your life complete. In fact, it's all you will ever need, and you only have to receive it on faith.

So you hold out your hand and take it, thanking the messenger. For some time you stare at it, marveling at its glorious, unique beauty. You wonder about the promises that came with it.

Finally, you put it on a shelf in your hallway, not knowing what else to do. It's too beautiful to open, and besides, you'd better save it until you really need it.

Over the years you do take it down, using it as a tool box of sorts. But the magic contained in the tools? It never lasts and you wonder about the promises that came with the gift. How can it be all you'll ever need, if its properties only last for a little while?

Is this you, my friend? Do you wonder still if this joy and peace people talk about is ever going to hit you? If the answer is yes, then I need to tell you something about that gift.

Maybe you never really received it.

God isn't a tool. He doesn't magically take away problems and give us a smooth path. He isn't something we take off a shelf when we're in need. I urge you...take that package and really receive it unto your heart. God himself is the Gift, not what he can do for us. He is it. He is all we need.

Evangelical believers reading now, especially those currently suffering, may still wonder what they're missing.

What if you know this already about God, have believed it for years, and still, joy eludes you at times?

When suffering comes, we can feel forsaken. Even those with a rich, textured, weathered relationship with the Lord can feel this emotion. Intellectually, we understand that God will never forsake us. We have years of proof of God's faithfulness, but we still feel forsaken at times.

This is normal. It isn't ideal, but it is normal. And it's because of sin. Sin is a roadblock to joy. No, I don't mean your current suffering comes from a direct sin, although perhaps that's true for some.

I mean that in our humanity, we can't stay up in the clouds all the time. We are fleshly, earthly. We can't sustain such an eternally-focused existence, that joy is ever-present.

So what do we do? What is the answer in times of suffering? How can joy be ours when the cancer has taken our breasts, a good part of our sexuality, and we have no hair and can't stop vomiting?

I wanted to give you the right answer. For days I studied, prayed, and I even suffered vomiting and tears in the middle of the night from a migraine...I suppose as an object lesson in intense suffering, if only for four hours.

Everything I studied was good, solid, detailed, highly theological. But the thing is, joy isn't an act of the will. I can't sit here and tell you all the technical reasons you should have joy through suffering, and then expect you to miraculously have it. Joy is a fruit of the Spirit, meaning it doesn't come from us. Joy is put in us as a grace gift.

Here's the tricky part. It's also a command.

Philippians 4:4 "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say rejoice."

Yes, God commands us to feel it, even though it's a gift of the Spirit. Find more joy verses here.

Do you follow the ministry of John Piper?  This man is a pastor and an original thinker. When he tackles a subject, you know you're getting the best there is, much as when reading Matthew Henry's commentaries (a giant from the past). Most Bible teachers merely regurgitate the generally accepted interpretations, adding in their personal stories, and this is fine and effective. It's all most of us teachers can hope for, even with prayer. God's Spirit works through good-enough teachers all the time.

Nevertheless, I give thanks for John Piper, because in him you not only have an original thinker, you have a lover of the Lord as well. A man who genuinely walks with the Lord and speaks authentically from that vantage point.

In 2006 he underwent surgery for prostate cancer. Following his surgery, he taught the best sermon I've found on joy in the midst of suffering, parts of which I've reprinted with permission here. I know this makes for a longer post, but come back later if you have to? This is very good stuff.

The sermon is based on a psalmist's steps to joy in the midst of suffering, found in Psalm 43. I love this partially because of its simplicity. Want joy? Repent of your grumbling and ask for it!

That's right: Go to God directly, tell him you're sorry for being cast down (grumbling in your heart), and ask him to give you joy. One of the reasons God dares to command joy from us, is so we won't succumb to grumbling, complaining, and despairing in times of suffering. These are all sin. They come from a perspective that is earthly, fleshly, temporal, not eternal.

Here is the short scripture, followed by an excerpt of John Piper's sermon.

Send Out Your Light and Your Truth (source for scripture)

43 Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause
    against an ungodly people,
from the deceitful and unjust man
    deliver me!
² For you are the God in whom I take refuge;
    why have you rejected me?
Why do I go about mourning
    because of the oppression of the enemy?

³ Send out your light and your truth;
    let them lead me;
let them bring me to your holy hill
    and to your dwelling!
⁴ Then I will go to the altar of God,
    to God my exceeding joy,
and I will praise you with the lyre,
    O God, my God.

⁵ Why are you cast down, O my soul,
    and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
    my salvation and my God.

Words by John Piper: Verse 1 describes what is going on in the psalmist’s life; verse 2 describes what is going on in his soul in response to this situation. Verse 1: “Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause against an ungodly people, from the deceitful and unjust man deliver me!” What makes his situation painful is that he has enemies, and they are oppressing him. They are ungodly people, and they are threatening his life or in some way making him miserable.

Verse 2 describes what is going on in his soul: “For you are the God in whom I take refuge; why have you rejected me? Why do I go about mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?” Now what is most striking about his soul is that it is divided. We are going to see this in verse 5 as well, and it explains why the psalmists sometimes pray, “Unite my heart to fear your name” (Psalm 84:11). His heart is divided between saying in the first line of verse 2, “You are the God in whom I take refuge,” then also saying in the next line, “Why have you rejected me?” And then, “Why do I go about mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”

I think this is not an uncommon condition among Christians today—a divided heart, a torn heart. I’m not saying it’s a good thing, or that we should have this experience. I am just saying most Christians do. In fact, I think I would say, “All Christians do at some point.” You can see it in the words of the man in Mark 9:24, “I believe, help my unbelief.” You can see it in Paul’s struggles in Romans 7:19, “For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.” So my guess is that many of you know this experience first hand.

How the Psalmist Handles It

So let’s look at how this man in the Psalm 43 takes practical steps against this divided heart. The grace of God has kept him from going so far that he doesn’t want to change. He does. He begins the psalm by crying out to God, “Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause.” So he is crying out against his circumstances and asking God to change them. “Defeat these enemies, Lord! Give me victory!” It is not wrong to pray that God rescue us from our enemies—whether they are people or natural disaster or disease. It’s right and good to pray for deliverance and for rescue and for healing. So he does that.

But the other two things the psalmist does are not natural. They are not something anyone would do without the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives. These two things are deeper and more significant than the mere desire to be vindicated. 

First He Speaks to God

First, verses 3-4: “Send out your light and your truth; let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling! Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy, and I will praise you with the lyre, O God, my God.” This is an amazing prayer. It reveals a man with much rich spiritual experience. His vocabulary, his view of reality, the sequence of his thought, the God-centeredness of his goal, the acquaintance with the sanctuary, the emotional outcome anticipated—all this reveals a man who has lived with God and knows God. Is it not amazing that even such a man can feel that God is distant, as if he has rejected him?

And notice that there is not a whiff here of praying for vindication over the enemy. That is not in view any more. Something far greater is at stake now. There is a much more important victory to be won than victory over people or disaster or cancer. This is why I said in my Star article, “Don’t think of beating cancer mainly as being healed.” There is a victory far more important. And you can win it even if you die. That’s what the psalmist is fighting for now.

Get inside this man’s heart now and learn from him to do what he is doing. This is how you learn from the saints who have walked with God a long time and know him well. His prayer takes him through four stages.

Stage One: Praying for Spiritual Light and Truth

First in verse 3: “Send out your light and your truth; let them lead me.” He confesses that he needs God to lead him. Why? Because he is in the dark. He knows he is in the dark because his heart is divided. God is his refuge, but he feels forsaken. He feels rejected. And he knows better. God does not reject those who take refuge in him. “He is a shield for all those who take refuge in him” (Psalm 18:30). But he can’t help himself. That’s how he feels.

O how many people come to me for prayer pointing to their head and say, “I know that God is true. I know that he loves me. I know that promises never to leave me or forsake me.” And then they point to their heart, and say, “But I don’t feel it.” That’s what this man is experiencing. God is his refuge objectively. But subjectively he feels rejected and forsaken.

He knows the cause of this is darkness. He is spiritually blind to something. So the first stage of his prayer is for light and truth. This is the way Paul prayed for us, in Ephesians 1:18, “[May] the eyes of your hearts [be] enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you.” The eyes of the heart—remember where the people were pointing when they could not feel the wonders they knew—the eyes of the heart need light. Spiritual light. Light from God.

He is praying for spiritual light. It’s not physical light. Physical light helps physical eyes see physical reality. Spiritual light lets spiritual eyes—the eyes of the heart—see spiritual reality. And see it for what it is, namely, beautiful. So he is praying that God would rescue him not from his enemies but from a far more dangerous enemy: a darkness that causes the world to look much more attractive than it is and causes the greatness and beauty of God to fade out of sight.

O God, he prays, send me light. And I think he adds “truth” because this is what you see when light comes. Truth is what’s real, what’s substantial. Send light to my soul. Let me see the true substance and reality of things. O God, banish illusions from my heart. Not just intellectual illusions from my head, but emotional illusions from my heart.

Stage Two: Coming to the Altar of God

The second stage of his prayer is that by this light and truth God would bring him to God’s holy dwelling—the sanctuary and the altar of God. Verse 3b-4a: “Let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling! Then I will go to the altar of God.” Now the altar is the place where the blood of the animal sacrifice was sprinkled to make atonement for the people and where God forgave the sins of his people. In other words, the light of God leads him to the truth of his sinfulness and takes him to the place of atonement and forgiveness.

On this side of the cross of Jesus Christ today we know where the altar of God is. It’s not in the temple. It’s not in any house made with hands. Hebrews 13:10 says, “We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat.” Our altar is Jesus Christ crucified and risen and standing before the throne of God. “Before the throne of God above, I have a strong and perfect plea”—Christ our High Priest, our sacrifice, our altar.

The light of God that leads us is today “the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:4). The light of the gospel leads us to Christ, to the altar, to the cross. And there our hearts are further illumined to see our sin and our wonderful forgiveness.

Stage Three: Experiencing God as Exceeding Joy

Then, the third stage of his prayer is that this light and truth would lead him to God as his exceeding joy. Verse 4: “Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy.” The final goal of life is not forgiveness or any of God’s good gifts. The final goal of life is God himself, experienced as your exceeding joy. Or very literally from the Hebrew, “God, the gladness of my rejoicing.” That is, God, who in all my rejoicing over all the good things that he had made, is himself, in all my rejoicing, the heart of my joy, the gladness of my joy. Every joy that does not have God as the central gladness of the joy is a hollow joy and in the end will burse like a bubble.

Isn’t this amazing! Here is man threatened by enemies and feeling danger from his adversaries, and yet he knows that the ultimate battle of his life is not the defeat of his enemies, it is not escaping natural catastrophe, it is not being healed from cancer. The ultimate battle is: Will God be his exceeding joy? Will God be the gladness at the heart of all his joys?

Stage Four: Expressing This Joy in God

And the final stage of his prayer is that this light and truth would lead him to express this joy that he feels in God. Verse 4 at the end: “And I will praise you with the lyre, O God, my God.” Authentic joy in God will overflow with praises. In fact, as C. S. Lewis says in his book on the Psalms, “we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation.”¹ It’s not wrong to say, “We were made for God.” It’s not wrong to say, “We were made for joy.” It’s not wrong to say, “We were made to praise.” But it is more fully true to say, “We were made to enjoy God with overflowing praise.” This is the ultimate goal of life.

Now mark this: we have been describing the prayer of a divided heart. The psalmist would like to know a constant uninterrupted experience of God as his exceeding joy. But in reality there are times when he feels forsaken. He knows in his head that God has not forsaken him. But it feels like he has. So his deepest strategy to escape this most dangerous condition is to pray, “Send out your light and your truth; let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling! Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy, and I will praise you with the lyre, O God, my God.”

Next, the psalmist preaches to himself, essentially telling himself he has no reason for despair. For that last part, and for the sermon in its entirely go here.

Be joyful my friends. Take the appropriate steps.