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.

Multitude Monday: Family Fun

We had an eventful weekend so I present a shorter Multitude Monday post today. Sorry there is no Scripture study.

Dear Lord, thank you for these gifts:

~ A son with the camera, capturing God's glory.

~ Dancing with husband at the fall apple festival.

~ Four kids who found joy at the bubble station for 30 minutes. We had to pull them away.

~ A naturalist who taught a wonderful class on various amphibians and reptiles.

~ Two brave girls who held the rat snake.

~ A nice visit with a dear friend.

~ Sharing burdens with Beth, my nursery worker partner. She has a 17-year-old daughter with the same difficulties my Peter has. How similar all these kids are! Like us, they find that their daughter's many issues run their lives in a sense. Please pray for Chelsea? She has severe depression with her ADHD and her depression med isn't helping enough. Very worrisome situation.

~ Our favorite nature center garden and all its treasures.

~ My precious Paul, who shares Daddy's love for college football. With no TV signal, Paul is forced to watch the progress of his favorite teams, especially Arkansas, online.

~ I have a photo of the kids on this same swing from two years ago. How they have changed!

~ Fall hay rides

Picking apples at our favorite apple farm, owned by Christians. All their neighbors' crops were ruined this year via the drought and frosts, but this family's crops flourished. How's that for divine favor?

~ Beth dancing with Daddy and then later, with Mommy and Daddy.

~ That God blesses us with deep orange and red trees this time of year. When I stop and think of this gift--about the many gifts of each season--I marvel at his tender, loving care of us.  

~ At the chili cook-off fall church fellowship, I sat next to a 68-year-old woman who was three days into a migraine. When she was 63 she suffered liver failure and was told she wouldn't live until the end of the year. All the medicine she had consumed for her migraines over the years finally caught up with her. While God didn't heal the migraines, He did heal her liver. She has to be very careful what medicines she takes, but she is alive and well. 

She prayed for me and took my address and phone number, and told me how to pray each time I have to take OTC medicines for a headache. My encounter with her was a real eye-opener for me. It was a divine meeting I will always be thankful for! 

It doesn't matter if you follow the directions on the bottles just right. Over time both acetaminophen and ibuprofen lead to liver and kidney damage. With acetaminophen, your liver goes first, then your kidneys. With ibuprofen, your kidneys are at risk.

If you take them for headaches more than two times a week, you'll put yourself into a dangerous rebound headache situation. Over time, your headaches will get far worse and more frequent (which has happened to me). This is not true if you need these OTC meds for arthritis or knee or back pain. The rebound pain is tied only to headaches.

This morning I started a reduction program. I have been taking acetaminophen every day for over 10 years. Instead of going cold turkey, which could mean some very unpleasant withdrawal symptoms, I'm starting with a tapering. Instead of taking two at a time, I will take one. Then, as the rebound headaches lessen in severity, I will try eliminating the tablets altogether. It could take months and we will definitely endure some pain and hardship over this, but my new friend made me realize I have to do this for my children. 

Please pray that the rebound cycle goes away quickly, rather than taking months? Thank you!

What are you thankful for today, friends?

Linking with Ann today.

Fruitful Fridays: An Introduction

God is a master teacher, isn't he? So many analogies, examples, and images fill the pages of scripture for our comfort and learning. For the awakened spirit, it's all there for the taking, waiting to transform us. 

Dear Lord, may our spirits be as eager as baby birds, our hearts always wide open for the next morsel.

My favorite biblical analogy has to do with fruit, a favorite food of mine. And incidentally, botanically speaking, chocolate is a fruit derivative. Anything that comes from a flower is technically considered a fruit. Chocolate is made from the seed (bean) of a football-sized fruit that grows on the trunks and leaves of cocoa trees. 

Yes, many wonderful things come from fruit, and honestly, what would we do without its sweetness?

Fridays here on the blog will be spent learning about the nine fruits of the Spirit. Perhaps not every Friday, but as many as I can manage. True, few people read blogs on Fridays, but hopefully sometime between Friday and Monday these fruit posts will be read. 

During the school year I won't be posting much more than Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, because I'm formally teaching Mary, my kindergartner, as well as the boys this year. 

Now let's jump into our introduction. 

The Galatians passage on the fruit of the spirit (printed below) is meant to be a contrast between life without salvation, and life with salvation. No longer slaves to the flesh or bound by Jewish law, we have freedom in Christ, living by the power of the Holy Spirit within us. As such we are called to love one another, for the whole law is summed up by the single commandment: "You must love your neighbor as yourself." Galatians 5:13-14

But how do we do this, when as Paul said in Romans, we so often find ourselves doing what we don't want to do...that is, sinning? 

The answer comes in the fruit analogy. Think of a piece of fruit that falls to the ground; shortly, it rots. While still attached to the stem, through which nutrients flow, the fruit flourishes. God continues to complete his work in us until the day he comes to bring us home, so in a sense our fruit is always getting sweeter, riper, more capable of nourishing others, as God nourishes us. 

Philippians 1:6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

But as with everything that comes from our union with the Father, fruit is not automatic. We don't get saved and suddenly produce fruit. We have free will always...a bittersweet gift to be sure. We must continually choose to remain attached to the Father. We must pursue Him, which is accomplished through Bible reading and Bible study, through prayer, and through worship (songs, psalms, praises). 

Remember the Tozer quote from my first post on joy? 

“What I am anxious to see in Christian believers is a beautiful paradox. I want to see in them the joy of finding God while at the same time they are blessedly pursuing Him. I want to see in them the great joy of having God yet always wanting Him.” ~ A. W. Tozer

While still on this earth we are as a branch, producing fruit for the Tree...only spiritually healthy when we remain attached to our source of life. God the Father.

John 15:5  "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

John 15:16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit--fruit that will last. 

There are nine fruits of the spirit, which can be divided into three categories. The first three, love, joy and peace, pertain to the health of our soul. The second three, patience, kindness and goodness, pertain to our relations with others. And the last three, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, are part of principles for godly living. 

The first fruit in each group gives rise to the other two. For example, if we love God, we have joy and peace. If we have patience (long-suffering), we are kind and good to others. If we are faithful to the Father, we can be gentle and self-controlled.

Our main text for Fruitful Fridays will be Galatians 5:13-26:

13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. 14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.

16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited,provoking and envying each other.

I'd be honored to have you join us here on Fridays. I thank the Lord for you, friends.

photo credit 1, 2, 3

Walk With Him Wednesday: Joy

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

For the next 3 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….

Unquestionably, the gigantic secret of Christians everywhere is joy. But as busy moms performing a hundred mundane tasks a day, how do we get there? Surely it doesn't arise from our sweeping, scrubbing, wiping, changing, folding, fixing and preparing...all while fielding interruptions? Surely it doesn't arise during discipline problems or money problems or relationship problems?  

Joy is such a meaty topic, we'll concentrate on just one aspect a week. Today let's discuss access. What everyone wants to know is this: How do we access joy? 

In preparing for my study, I read through five or six different topical studies, hoping to find the best scriptures pertaining to joy. And do you know, three-year-old Beth woke up three times during my four-hour study? The third time I had to finally ask the Lord...what are you trying to tell me here? That you don't want me to complete this study? For surely I need time, don't I? Can you please give me time, here, God?

I think I heard the Spirit say, "Little Beth finds joy in your presence. She finds joy in nourishing at your breast, for her divine comfort. You are her joy, and I am yours. You find it in my presence and in my Word. Gradually, children replace the joy of Momma's presence, with the joy of My presence. So, go, be with her now. Give her joy in your presence, as I give it to you."

Every Christian has access to all the fruits of the Spirit, including joy. If you are saved, joy is available to you through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Galatians 5:22-25 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

It's common to mistake happiness for joy. Happiness is based on circumstances; joy is based on presence. His presence. Psalm 21:6 Surely you have granted him unending blessings and made him glad with the joy of your presence. 

Don't gloss over the verses here, but really drink them in.

Psalm 145:18 "The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, who call upon Him in truth."

Psalm 43:4 “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.” 

Habakkuk 3:18-19 yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights.



Everything available to us through our union with God? It's not automatic. This is a grievous misconception of many a Christian. God must be pursued! We cannot scrub day in and day out, sweep this and that debris away, sacrifice for our families, labor over our children's hearts, and then experience joy automatically. We must pause and go after God. Find him in the garden. Spend time with Him: talk to him (prayer), sing praises to him (worship), and meditate on his Word (study).

Psalm 119:111 “Your testimonies are my heritage forever, for they are the joy of my heart.” 

While in His presence we will know peace and joy, despite the circumstances of the moment. Remember that peace is a Person, not a destination. Psalms 63:5-7 My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips, when I remember you upon my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night; for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.

Isaiah 12:6 “… Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.”


Did you know that if you drink a full glass of water, it boosts your metabolism for some time after you consume it? And the closer you get to 8 glasses a day, the higher your metabolism will be? It's the same with joy! The more you drink in of God and his Word, the more joy you'll have, and the longer it will last. If it's been more than 24 hours since your last fill up, expect anything but joy.

First of all, you aren't likely to obey God if you spend too much time away from him. Disobedience brings unnecessary turmoil. John 15:10  If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

Our joy is complete when we remain in Him? It's that simple? Yes! I have experienced this time and again, after horrific hours and even whole days. Joy is only as far away as my Bible and my pause for prayer or song.

“What I am anxious to see in Christian believers is a beautiful paradox. I want to see in them the joy of finding God while at the same time they are blessedly pursuing Him. I want to see in them the great joy of having God yet always wanting Him.” ~ A. W. Tozer

Prayer Time: Dear Heavenly Father, I love you. Thank you for your promised presence. Thank you for the joy it brings to my soul. I pray that same joy for my children, my husband, my family and friends. May we all remain in you daily, may we remember how very close you always are, ready to comfort, nourish and bring joy. Father, thank you that we can pause at any time, during sweeping, during laundry, to speak to you, to sing to you, to drink from your strength and your peace. If needs and children are everywhere and our Bible is not, let us remember song...for we need only our voice to praise you. What a beautiful gift you are! May we spread our joy, sharing the secret with the lost and the lonely. May we not keep hidden that which is most precious .We love you, Father. Thank you for the exceeding joy!

In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.

photo credit one, two, three

Multitude Monday: Contentment

Writing from prison to the believers in Philippi, Paul tells us “I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need”. Philippians 4:11-12

I love Paul's triumph here and more importantly, I love that God brought him to this place for the benefit of every believer who will feast on these words, again and again, generation after generation. For Satan, he takes no greater pleasure than to breed discontent in our hearts. Paul's words mean death to Satan's schemes and for that reason alone, Philippians 4:11-12 is a priceless Biblical gem indeed.

You wouldn't know it from my outburst yesterday, but God is working this gem in me. 

My son's ADHD was like a hammer to my head for some concentrated afternoon hours, short-circuiting the contentment function in my heart. And while I tried to slam our faulty microwave door with just the right force to engage the broken start button, coaxing 6 baked potatoes out of it without popping an electrical circuit...all the while feeling the sensation of a snapped underwire in my years-old bra digging into my skin...well, contentment was not mine. 

And hearing my dedicated son Paul, willingly practicing his half-hour of piano--on which he's self-teaching with the help of beginner piano books--tell me that his cheap, battery-powered lap keyboard no longer played right...while I worked in a kitchen with four broken drawers sagging down and a snapped-in-two cabinet door someone swung on one too many times...well, contentment was not mine.

In a moment there, my spirit wanted to get into my van with its missing door panels, door handles and door locks, its filthy carpet and dirty upholstery, its 220,000 miles, and drive off into the sunset that wasn't.

But my husband was outside trying to fix my son's bike chain and tire for the fiftieth time and what exactly does Peter do to cause these chronic bike problems that terrorize his already-busy Daddy? 

So if I drove off into the sunset that wasn't, who would finish the Sunday-night roast chicken dinner preparations? What would the children eat for dinner besides chicken and how would my husband manage the baths, stories, teeth, and devotions, all by himself?

I plowed through, feeling no choice, but my mood tasted sour and my outburst ruined a perfectly good dinner. 

Once I read that ADHD causes as much parental stress as autism. Probably a true statement, that. In a final act of heartlessness, I let my son know that his relentless onslaught and inability to delay gratification ruined my night and could he please stay away from me because I couldn't. take. it. another. minute.

And perhaps worst of all, Mommy didn't apologize before bed and it wasn't until Scripture drove the truth into her soul a few hours later, that her heart melted and sorrowed over her ghastly display of discontent and ungodliness. Thank the Lord for a daily washing with the Word. What would my filthy heart do without this eternal soap?

This I learned: Moment to moment contentment is not found in properly working household items or in properly behaved children. It's not found in classy shoes, new bras, beautiful kitchen cabinetry, well-fitting clothes or a shiny new van.

As the Apostle told Timothy, “we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either. If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content”. (1 Timothy 6:7-8)

Job, too, understood this  “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return there. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21)

Blessed be the name of the Lord because as creature comforts are taken away from me, I transfer my affections to God and his purposes. 

My Lord? He's doing an incredible work in my heart...an Apostle-Paul type work. And when I stop to give thanks for it, to surrender to it, to look forward to the beauty it will wrought in my heart, I get that much closer to Paul's declaration: I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.

For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. (Philippians 1:21) How much more has to go wrong, how much more has to break, has much more has to rattle my nerves, before I utter these same words?

The more we let go of temporal possessions, the more we gain eternal treasures...the kind we can take with us. 

The less we are attached to creature comforts, the more we are attached to Christ. 

And the converse? It's also true. The more we are attached to creature comforts, the more we are attached to Satan. The more we are attached to Satan, the more we are attached to the future and not thankful for the present.

“We want a whole race perpetually in pursuit of the rainbow’s end, never honest, nor kind, nor happy now, but always using as mere fuel wherewith to heap the altar of the future every real gift which is offered them in the Present.” Uncle Screwtape’s counsel to his nephew Wormwood in C. S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters 

“Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 

Tomorrow morning, not only will I apologize, but I'll also teach: It's beautiful to be surrounded by broken things...and the above Scriptures? They tell us why.

Giving thanks today:

~ A determined, disciplined, talented son...may he daily give thanks for, and never develop pride over his God-given gifts.

~ A broken son whose life teaches me surrender and godly contentment...may I love him well and teach him his worth in Jesus Christ, his Redeemer.  

~ Sunday-night roast chicken dinners

~ A husband who dutifully takes the spiritual lead

~ Hugs from little girls with heavenly smelling hair

~ Hot cocoa sipped with my Bible reading 

~ Middle-of-the-night headaches that steal me more time with my Bible 

~ Fall color all around

~ Chili cook-off fellowship dinner next weekend

~ Two letters in one day from India

~ Husband's hugs in the midst of child-rearing craziness

~ Endless laundry (we have changes of clothes to our name, praise the Lord)

~ A little girl who loves late-afternoon light in the trees. "Can I go outside, Mommy? It's my favorite part of the day!"

~ Food in the fridge and pantry for a week.

What are you thankful for today, friend? 

Giving thanks with Ann and other thankful ladies, for Multitude Monday.
photo credit 1, credit 2, credit 3

Also linking with Emily at Imperfect Prose