Joy - Week 2
Monday
Luke 10:17-21
17 The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.”
18 He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 19 I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. 20 However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
21 At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.
Every year, around May and June, the celebrations of school graduations take place. For some these are an event that brings relief, but for all these events bring joy! You can see it on the faces of the graduates as they relish in the culmination of all their work and achievements. But the greatest joy is in the audience with family and especially with parents.
The apostle John wrote, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.” Talk to any parent and they will tell you that is absolutely true! Jesus nurtured the disciples, instructing them and modeling for them the way the way that God designed for humans to live. But eventually everyone must begin to do that work themselves, they must leave the classroom or the home and put into practice what they have been taught.
Obedience and faithfulness have very real results in our lives, and one of the greatest aspects of the fruit that God’s Spirit produces in our lives is JOY. The 72 disciples did what Jesus told them to do and they returned with JOY. Jesus had poured his life and ministry into these disciples, like a parent into a child or a teacher into a student. Parenting and teaching are acts of faith because the outcomes cannot be guaranteed. But when a child or a student goes out and puts their learning to the test and it works, the result is JOY for everyone!
The Holy Spirit brings us JOY when we are faithful and obedient. The Holy Spirit brings JOY to others when we are faithful and obedient. But even more amazing is the fact that our faithfulness and obedience brings JOY to Jesus through the Holy Spirit.
Spread some JOY to others today by being faithful in what God has appointed you to do today.
~John Secrest
Tuesday
Luke 15:3-7
3 Then Jesus told them this parable: 4 “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? 5 And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6 and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ 7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.
This is a passage that is a cause for celebration. When even one person comes to know and accepts Christ into their life, heaven rejoices! (See Luke 15:10). This is evidence of the importance of every human being in God’s sight. We are his children, and our Father God wants us to know and follow Him.
Another cause for celebration occurs when a believer who strays is brought back to fellowship with the Good Shepherd. Has God ever had to go after you after a bad decision or action was taken? I can think of many examples in my life when I took the wrong road and made decisions that took me farther from God. I was lost, and for a time didn’t even realize how far off course I was. In fact, there were times when was so exhausted with trying to live life without Christ guiding me that it almost disabled me; I felt helpless and weak from being apart from Him.
In this passage of scripture we find a wonderful part of the parable that is found in verse 5: “And when he (the shepherd) has found it (the lost sheep), he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. “ In other words, the sheep can no longer walk, and cannot return to the home base on its’ own. He’s too weak.
Isn’t this what sin does to us? It weakens us so that we’re distracted, discouraged, and off base in every way. If not for Christ picking us up and bringing us back to Him, we would remain estranged from Him, unable to survive alone.
Read this passage in several translations and thank God that He has come after you when you’ve gone astray, and that He will continue to do so if we only ask. Read John 10:11. It is a great promise to us from Christ, our Shepherd.
~Duane Funderburk
Wednesday
John 15.9-11
9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 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. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.”
What Jesus says here is remarkable. Did you catch it? He says that as we keep his commands (namely, to love God, love others, and make disciples), we will bring him joy and we’ll be brought joy too.
That’s just plain amazing!
This idea reminds me of what it is like to be a good friend. Think back to a time when one of your friends really went out of their way to make you feel special. What did they do? Well, it’s likely that they did something that you liked because it made you feel good!
So if it was your birthday, they got you a personalized gift that demonstrated they thought of you. If you were having a hard time in some area of your life, they probably knew just how to listen and how to cheer you up. Or if had some great news, they knew precisely how to celebrate with you.
Here’s the point: as your friend did what they knew you would like, you felt joy. And then, in turn, they felt joy too, since there’s not much better in life than helping bring someone contentment.
This is what it’s like in our relationship with Jesus. We’re the friend who does what Jesus desires, namely to obey his commands. As we do so, we bring great joy to Jesus, which can and should bring us joy too.
So our joy is based less on our human relationships, our jobs, and our circumstances and much more on our connection to Jesus through the Spirit. So the bald truth is that if we want to experience joy, then we need to submit to the Spirit as he leads us to obey Jesus’ commands.
In what areas of your life do you have a hard time giving the reins over to the Spirt? How’s that working out for you? Are you finding joy in those areas?
And in what areas of your life are you submitting to the Spirit more and more? My guess is that you’re finding deep contentment there, even if from a worldly perspective it might be hard to see.
That’s the beauty of joy – it’s based on Jesus...not you, others, or your circumstances! Thank goodness!
~Matt Barnes
Thursday
John 17.11-13
11 “I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.”
13 “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.”
Jesus’ prayer for his disciples is a tender one, but also an urgent one. He knew that he would very soon no longer be with them personally and would be going to be with his heavenly father. They would be left “alone” without his presence, the source of their protection, provision, guidance, and ministry enablement. And, so His concern and focus in his prayer is to pray for their protection from the “evil one” and his deception and treachery and that they find and experience oneness (mutual support and encouragement) in their relationships and ministry, resulting in “the fullness of JOY.” This prayer for them was critical in light of Judas’ upcoming betrayal, which could potentially destroy their bond and trust with each other and discourage them from fulfilling Jesus’ mission for them to proclaim the Gospel “...in Jerusalem, Samaria, Judea and the uttermost parts of the world” (Acts 1.8).
Jesus is praying that the disciples would keep their focus on him, his promises, and his authority so as to not be shaken in their faith and trust because of difficult or devastating circumstances, aka works of the “evil one.” Jesus knew that their ability to be effective witnesses would be in direct proportion to the “inner joy” they experienced through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit living in them. That “joy” would make them contagious as they shared the Gospel in Jesus’ absence.
Where am I? Where are you when it comes to experiencing the “joy of the Lord?” Is there a “secret” to finding that joy? Am I contagious with that joy?
I am a grandparent and have seen a form of “pure joy” in our grandson, especially when his mother comes back into the room where he is after having been gone for a while. He puts on this absolutely beaming Cheshire-like smile that could melt the toughest heart! Why the joy? Because Mom is back and she is right there with him again. Mom is the one who loves him, protects him, cares for him, plays with him, and makes his life enjoyable and safe.
As believers, Jesus wants us to know and experience “a full measure of his joy”, too, the kind of joy he prayed for his disciples. It is a joy which is possible because of his presence in our lives through the Holy Spirit living in us. Jesus is never “gone for a while” and never “leaves us alone.” He has said that, “...he would never leave us or forsake us...” (Hebrews 13.5) and that we can always count on his love, care, protection, and guidance in our lives. The key, or “secret”, to having that joy, I believe, is “to fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith” (Hebrews 12.2) and not allow ourselves to be distracted or impacted by the “evil one’s” attempts to discourage or destroy us through some challenge or difficulty.
Joy is part of the “fruit of the Spirit.” Let’s claim it moment by moment in our daily walk with Jesus.
~Roger Bosch
Friday
Matthew 5.11-12
11 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 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.
I was in China at the time. It was a typically busy day filled with errands and meetings. Late in the day there was a chance to join a small home fellowship for prayer and worship.
The host of the meeting was an older man sitting on an old squeaky twin bed at one end of the single-room house. He motioned for my friend and me to sit next to him. We wound our way through what was a house packed with Believers. Every bit of floor space was occupied, as were the few of pieces of furniture he owned. The group sang and prayed and we joined in as best we could.
Our host asked if he could tell us his story of walking with Jesus and a story unwound not to dissimilar to what Jesus’ first disciples experienced.
Pastor Allan met Jesus. He heard his words and embraced them and his following of Jesus ultimately led to his arrest as a leader of an illegal and underground movement of churches in China. He told us of two long stints in hard labor camps and separation from his children for almost all of their formative years. He talked about physical torture and mental anguish. He had lived Jesus’ words that many of his followers would suffer for their commitment to him. But here is the most shocking thing I experienced that day... his JOY.
Pastor Allan told these stories with a deep, satisfied smile on his otherwise tired face. His eyes danced as he recounted God’s faithfulness throughout. He had entered into a place where God met him uniquely and where he had understood and expected to suffer for the sake of Christ, but instead of bitterness, it produced joy. The use of the term indicates a ‘delight’ in something. Pastor Allan delighted in the deep places he had been with God. It cultivated a way of being beyond happiness, with its attributes of coming and going, but a rooted delight in obeying the Lord and encountering him in deep ways...in a word, joy.
I have often thought of our brother and that afternoon almost twenty years ago now. The work of the Spirit in this man brought forth a very rare vintage of the fruit of the spirit labeled “joy;” joy in the face of suffering, joy on the other side of suffering, joy in telling a stranger his story of suffering.
As you reflect on difficult things that are a consequence of your faith in Christ, how has it given you opportunity to seek out this kind of joy? Were you able to embrace it? Can you identify growth in this aspect of the fruit of the Spirit? Today ask God to give you eyes to see where you have grown in this area and also courage to face where growth is still needed.
~Scott White
Saturday
Matthew 28.5-10
5 The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. 6 He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. 7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.”
8 So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. 9 Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”
Can you imagine what it must have been like for these women? They had loved and followed Jesus for quite some time. Then he was arrested, falsely accused, unjustly convicted, given a traitor’s sentence, and crucified.
They must have been crushed.
But their love for Jesus remained. They came to the place where they thought his body would be to care for him, which is the way an ancient person paid respect to a loved one who died.
But when they arrived at Jesus’ tomb, he was gone! An angel tells them what has happened and that they should go and tell the others.
Then the passage says that these women were “afraid yet filled with joy.” I mean, can you blame them!
Being in the presence of angelic beings must always instill fear in people because angels in the Bible almost always tell people not to afraid. Besides, they were expecting to find the lifeless body of Jesus, not an angel with a message just for them!
And they were filled with joy thanks to the message of this angel. They were told that Jesus was alive and that they were to go and tell others! How awesome! Their beloved Jesus wasn’t dead and they were being entrusted with an important, public task, which would have been extremely rare for women in the ancient world.
Sometimes when God moves in our lives it’s like this too – there’s fear and joy intermingled. Fear because when God moves it generally means that the status quo is being changed. And lots and lots of us really fear change. And there’s joy as well because it is fulfilling to be used by God for whatever he sees fit.
And let’s be just like these women – let’s not let our fear get in the way of experiencing the joy that God has for us!
~Matt Barnes