All About GOD - Growing Relationships with Jesus and Others
Joy to the World! Are you joyful?
One of the most used words in the bible is the word Joy. Joy is listed as part of the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. We are to be the most joyous people in the world, so why are so many of us not joyful?
In the bible we are commanded to be joyful. Count it all joy the word of God tells us, but what is the problem with that imperative? You are hurting, how can you possibly be joyful, you ask, is there a button I am to push and make myself joyful? We often even get angry when people give us the biblical command to count it all joy and we think they are not sensitive, but are they being insensitive or are we being blinded by pain etc…?
We tend to think happiness and joy is something that happens to us, that is passive, but not something that we have control over. But can we create joy and happiness by an act of the will or by abiding in Christ? Is joy an automatic reaction to abiding in Him, to being filled with the Spirit?
Scripture gives us a command to count it all joy; it’s an imperative, it’s an obligation. It is our duty to be joyful and the failure to be a joyful Christians is a manifestation of the flesh. Don’t misunderstand me, we all experience sorrow and grief. Jesus was called a man of sorrow and acquainted with grief. It is better to go to the house of morning than to spend our time with fools and blessed/happy are those who mourn scripture tells us, but how can a person be in mourning and still be joyful?
How can Jesus be a man of sorrow and be the most joyful human to have ever walked the earth?
How can we experience feelings of mourning (which are not sinful) and have the biblical dimension of joy, even when we are experiencing mourning and grief and in the midst of our sorrow?
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Amanda on
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Rita, you are too kind to me. I am just a friend. Not a best friend or even a good friend to her. We went to church together for close to four years and I have known her and her family for about 5 years now. We are close as much as a church family is close. I have two things on my heart right now that I would like everyone who reads this to pray for:
1) She has to bury her children on Monday while her husband is in intensive care and such a time is when a woman really needs her husband. Yesterday, she said she was going to ask her husband's dad to be on one side of her and her own dad to be on the other side to stand in her husband's place. May God give her strength and endurance and may Jesus be with her in her husband's place for that day.
2) Pray for her husband...for he will not be able to go through this part of the mourning process for his children...and that is going to be hard on him later on when he finds out they have died and he missed their burial. That may be about 5 0r 6 weeks from now before he is well enough and they tell him.
I do plan to attend the services on Monday.
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Bev, your prayers are appreciated. It is the other way around...she is the light. Her faith has not wavered and Monday when she buried her two youngest daughters, it was very God-honoring. She did say to me that all the hugs are very "therapeutic." The next few weeks will be very hard for her.
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Permalink Reply by Richard L. Broch, Sr. on
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Hi Brother David,
Excellent post.....thanks for posting it.
Some real good thoughts being registered here.
Let me add an item or two......or three...or...
Of course there is a difference between "happy" and "joy".
Happy is caused by something "happening".......and whatever happens must be stimulating to a person's happy glands.
Joy is being cheerful.....a calm, continuing delight....being glad..... it's much deeper.
How can we be joyful in a time of mourning?
There's a story of an old man at his late wife's funeral. They had been married for over 60 years. They were Christians.
He was being cheerful as he related many anecdotes of their time together, even laughing from time to time. Someone asked him why he wasn't more sad at this time.
He replied, "Yes, I will be missing my sweetie, but I know she's in a much better place, and I'm glad for her. And, I know I'll be joining her in a little while."
Philippians 4:4 tells us, "Rejoice in the Lord ALWAYS; again I will say rejoice!".
O.K. guys, that's like Paul telling us to "Pray without ceasing".
How about if we compare it to "logging on" with the Lord when we start our day........ and then throughout the day as things happen......we're on it.
That way...... when tribulation in the world is threatening all around us.......we can be of good cheer...... because Jesus has overcome the world (extracted from John 16:33).
Finally, Jesus.... remember from Isaiah 53........"A man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;......
This same Jesus, in Hebrews 12:2, "fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the JOY set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.".
Let me sum it up this way guys - We've got bigger fish to fry (JOY)...... and this world deals only in minnows.
Grace and Peace.
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Permalink Reply by David Velasquez on
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Richard
Thanks for sharing beloved
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We should cry with those who are crying and rejoice with those who are rejoicing. But I did laugh at my Dad's funeral. There was a little old lady who knew my dad and she got up to say a few words to honor his memory and I was so hurt by his death that I was not in the mood to listen to that trite poem she was reading which was saying:
It broke our hearts to lose you,
But you did not go alone,
A part of us went with you,
The day God called you home.A million times we needed you,
A million times we cried,
If love could have only saved you,
You never would have died.I couldn't stand that poem and by the time she said that last bit "If love could have only saved you, You never would have died" I said outloud and without meaning to even say it "You got that right!" and everyone in attendance heard me. I was just as surprised as everyone else and my brother-in-law, Kenny, was sitting next to me, and I looked at Kenny and Kenny looked at me and we both burst out laughing. My sister, Cindy, said to me, "I bet Dad is laughing now, too."
Why do people write poems like that?
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Permalink Reply by Rita Cullimore on
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I wish you all a very Joyous New Year!
Amanda,
When Danny went to be with the Lord, I left the direction of his memorial service in the hands of one of his beloved co-workers, Bennette Connelly. She and Danny were best of friends, she knows the Lord, and I knew his service was in good hands. As the person to give his eulogy, she selected Danny' boss, who couldn't do it because losing Danny was too great a loss for him and he was suffering terribly. One of the guys that Danny met as a young boy at the age of 14 volunteered to do it. He simply gave his recollection of Danny and the things he taught him during his years with the company and he did a marvelous job. His eulogy was hilarious! There wasn't a dry eye in the chapel...not from sorrow but from remembrance of my husband and the type of man he was. After the service was over, the funeral home director approached me with these words, " In all my years in this business, I have never heard such great joy and laughter coming from our chapel during a service as we've heard today."
Most people don't celebrate the home going of a person, even though they should be joyous that that person isn't suffering any longer and is with the Lord. Instead we think of our own loss and what we see the the person's absence means to us.
When I begin missing Danny, one of the things I recall is what this friend of Danny's said about him. And my joy returns. (As well as a few wise words from my friends!)
Blessings...
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It is very difficult not to think of our own loss. Overcoming grief for any loss, and especially the loss and separation a death brings, is very challenging. For some just accepting the reality is a major hurdle. Then bearing the pain is a huge burden. Adjusting to the world again is another and applies to any loss, too, the loss of a job, a home, a relationship. There is much work to accomplish in the journey towards letting go and it is OK to give yourself time to grieve. Some need more time than others. My heart goes out to all those who are in pain today. God be with them and comfort them and help them.
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I agree with you. In regards to Danny, and my loss of him...I know that he is with God, I know that he no longer is suffering, I know what awaits us all at death, for those who are in Christ Jesus. Perfection...no pain, no suffering, no tears. So I have the joy of the Promises of God. Right now I miss him, but knowing he is safe and healthy because of the Promises, Joy reigns in my heart. My loss is put on a lower shelf.
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Count it all joy…
What gives some in our family stability in the midst of calamity? Some are busy bringing God glory through it all, while others are struggling to remain afloat when facing trials? Our live is one of endurance; we are called to suffer for the sake of the gospel, as well as the common sufferings we endure for living in a fallen world.
How can we be joyful in the midst of pain and suffering? COUNT IT – WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO COUNT IT ALL JOY. One thing is to be in a state of rejoicing and to have joy, but another thing to count something, something other than what it is. God through Paul is telling us to consider, count it, and reckon it joy, even when we are not feeling joyful about the sufferings we are enduring, we are called upon to count it, to consider it joy. Not because the thing itself we are enduring is something pleasurable, but rather the reason we are to count it joy is because as the whole bible tells us that pain and tribulation works patience/perseverance within us, so that there is at least something good happening to us in the midst of affliction. We are to think about our circumstances as difficult as they may be. There is a purpose for the afflictions we are called upon to bear and that purpose is always good.
God works all things together for our good, so count it all joy when is not all joy, because it isn’t all joy when we are involved in pain and suffering, but none the less God calls us to consider it all joy, because we know THAT GOD is working in that situation our sanctification.
One of the things that is very effective to enable us to count painful things joy is for us to learn to think in turns of the future. Our hope in God and an eternal state where there will be no more dying and crying there, is a real hope for us in Christ. The problem is when this life is all we can see. This life is not it family, this life is not it, it is only the porch to eternity, it’s not even the living room haha.
There is real pain in this life, but:
"If we endure, we shall also reign with Him" (2 Tim. 2:12).
I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.Romans 8:18
2 Corinthians 4:17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.
At the time of the painful experience is hard to consider it all joy and we must cry with those who cry at such times. We ARE NOT A PEOPLE WITHOUT HOPE.
There is a time limit for pain and sorrow, eternity in glorifyed bodies awaits us, God has giving us so much already. Do we trust God, do we believe God? Do we believe that all things work together for our good?
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Permalink Reply by Leonard T on
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David .........
Good to see you back around!!! You have been missed, my brother!!!
Lord Bless,
LT
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LT - it is great to once again have some real time to invest amount my beloved family in Chirst.
Blessings
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Char,
Be joyful always (1 Thessalonians 5:16)
"Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! "(Phil. 4:4).
Matthew 5:12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
New International Version (©1984)
But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. 1 Peter 4:13Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you, and revile you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of Man’s sake. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy! For indeed your reward is great in heaven, for in like manner their fathers did to the prophets. – Luke 6v23
I see what you are saying, but can we separate counting something joyful (not the thing itself, but what the thing is producing) and having joy? Even if that joy is not manifested with a smile? From the verses above and many other ones, it seems to me that God is commanding us to be joyful always, specially through persecution and tribulations.
>>While you may be hurting and unable to smile and laugh, inside, you have a deep sense of knowing it will all turn out ok eventually. Perhaps that is the joy.
Amen!
"the Joy of the Lord is your strength "(Neh. 8:10).
rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, Romans 12:12
>>Ecc. points out that sorrow is better than laughter.Why is sorrow better than laughter in that verse, what is God teaching in that verse?
"Who can have enjoyment without God? "(Eccl. 2:25)
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