Foundational Joy

The out-and-out Christian is a joyful Christian. The half-and-half Christian is the kind of Christian that a great many of you are, little acquainted with the Lord. Why should we live halfway up the hill and swathed in the mists, when we might have an unclouded sky and a radiant sun over our heads if we would climb higher and walk in the light of His face? Alexander Maclaren

Joy is very different from happiness, where happiness is something that is for a moment and is something we can chase for a long time. Joy is a foundation which we can come back to, we can look back to it and be reminded of it in times of trouble. In Psalm 30 it says that sorrow may tarry through the night, but joy will come in the morning. Joy is a foundation that we can all understand, as it is the heart of all people. However not everyone has the same reason for or foundation of joy. For those of us who follow Christ our foundation should be that of the God breathed word, the lamp onto our feet and the light onto our path. In the gospel of Matthew chapter 7 Jesus talks about having the firm or correct foundation, he uses the story we all know so well, of the man who build his house on the rock. He says:

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.”

(Matt 7:24-29, ESV)

It is pretty self-explanatory, if we hear God’s word and do them we will have our foundation be in God. The trials will come (rain, floods and wind) but we will be joyful because of being founded in the word of God. In fact in the epistle of James it says, Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds.

But the question comes how do we find that joy when we are going through struggles and have forgotten the foundation that we have, well in this time and age we have a great way of looking at the written word of God, we have so many ways we can look at the word thanks to technology, and we know that we can bring it to the Lord in prayer. An example of this is when the psalmist writes about being in trouble and he asks why he is going through trouble. But in verse 4 of Psalm 43 we read what he does:

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. (Psalm 43:4 ESV)

He goes to the altar of the Lord and the psalmist rejoices in the steadfast joy he has in his saviour. So today if you are in that place where you wonder where your joy went to and your soul is sorrowful, bring it before the Lord and have a chat with our heavenly father and He will remind us of the foundation we have where nothing will, I repeat nothing will separate us from the Love of God. It is then that we will find our joy again and will rejoice being able to say God you are my refuge my strength in times of trouble.

May God richly bless you and keep you as you are reminded of the joy you have in Him. I know he reminds me often and I rejoice every time.

Blessings

Rich