Joy

Joy. Why is it so elusive? First, as we saw last time, joy is elusive because we tend to place our trust or desire in things that do not last.

Jeremiah 2:13 "For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, The fountain of living waters, To hew for themselves cisterns, Broken cisterns That can hold no water.

We have a choice. We can pursue joy through the things of this world which can give no lasting joy, or we can pursue God as our delight and when we find Him we will have a joy that never fades. The Israelites forsook God and started to trust in things, they were digging "cisterns" for themselves and those "cisterns" could hold no water, the water they put in them would leak out leaving them dry.  It was a picture of finding joy or sustenance in anything else other than God.  Anything else is a faulty cistern. If our delight is in the Lord then our joy is assured because God never changes, He never fails, and He is always present. Some may well respond, "Wait just a minute! I believe in God and put my trust in Him and I am constantly disappointed and let down, I do not feel joyful." This reaction is quite common among Christians today. The problem is one of perspective and faith it is not God's fault. Jesus said that His followers could have the same joy that He had.

John 15:11
"These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.

Jesus even prayed to the Father that we would be able to experience the fullness of His joy.

John 17:13
"But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves.

To have and experience the same joy that Jesus had we need to have the same focus and desire that Jesus had. What was His focus and what was His desire?

A Focus that Leads to Joy

Jesus had a singular focus. Everything in Jesus' life was focused on accomplishing one thing, the Father's will. Jesus did not have to pray for His Father to reveal His will. It was obvious to Jesus what His life was all about. From before His birth the will of the Father for Jesus' life was plain.

Matthew 1:21 "She will bear a Son; you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins."

Jesus lived His life with this focus. He wanted to fulfill throughout His life and even in His death, the will of the Father.

Matthew 20:17-19
As Jesus was about to go up to Jerusalem, He took the twelve disciples aside by themselves, and on the way He said to them, ¹⁸ "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn Him to death, ¹⁹ and will hand Him over to the Gentiles to mock and scourge and crucify Him, and on the third day He will be raised up."

Even when the going got tough Jesus held steady. He, it seems, would rather have accomplished His Father's will by some other means than crucifixion and having the His Father's wrath poured out upon Him, but even in the face of such a terrible experience and death He held steady and prayed this prayer.

Matthew 26:39 And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will."

Why was this focus on God's will important for Jesus?

A Desire that Keeps Us Focused Leading to Joy

Jesus understood what God's will was for His life and that understanding coupled with a desire to fulfill it allowed Him to succeed. It is one thing to know what God wants you to do; it is an entirely different thing to have the desire to see it through.

John 4:34 Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work.

John 5:30
"I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.

John 6:38
"For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.

When a person knows God's will and then seeks to fulfill it with all of his heart there is nothing more powerful. God has great and wonderful promises for a person like that.

2 Chronicles 16:9a "For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His.

As we learn about God we begin to understand that even when the going gets tough, staying the course is the best policy, God is always at work, bringing everything we endure to impact us for good. And that understanding lets us pray like Jesus, "if possible let this cup pass from me but not my will but yours." I want God's best for me, sometimes that leads through the valley sometimes on a mountain peak.

Romans 8:28-32 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. ²⁹ For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; ³⁰ and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified. ³¹ What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? ³² He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?

God is working strongly to support those whose hearts are His. The people who share the same focus as Jesus, who have the desire as Jesus to carry out that focus, those people who want to live out God's will, find themselves a strong ally in the God of their delight. How does this impact joy?

Remember the definition of joy we looked up earlier, "an emotion of keen or lively pleasure arising from present or expected good; exultant satisfaction; delight," If our delight is the same Jesus' we will find that delight always fulfilled and have joy. You see, joy comes from delights being fulfilled. Our joy comes in pursuing our delight. If our delight is the will of God being fulfilled then we will always have our joy.

Psalm 1:1-4 How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers! ² But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law he meditates day and night. ³ He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, Which yields its fruit in its season And its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he does, he prospers. ⁴ The wicked are not so, But they are like chaff which the wind drives away.

God has not promised to give us everything we want in this world, but He has promised to give us all things that would accomplish our delight in being like Jesus and glorifying Him. This idea of our delight being in God's glory and in our transformation is captured in what we call the Lord's prayer.

Matthew 6:9-10
"Pray, then, in this way: 'Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.
¹⁰ 'Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.

This focus on delighting in God and His will is what Jesus meant by taking up our cross and following Him. By taking up our cross we die to our own transient desires, desires which can never really satisfy, and take up His desire, we lay down our life and take up a new life. This new life is a life that can be filled with joy as our new found desires are fully satiated.

Can we do this? In order to experience a fullness of joy we need to know the will of God for our lives so we can pursue that with the same vigor that Jesus did. Can we know God's will for our lives? Aren't people praying to know God's will precisely because it is hard to know? Not really, people pray for God's will because they don't know any better. God's will can be known in every circumstance. Sometimes we just need a little help in carrying out what we know we should do, or resolve not to do what we know we shouldn't.

Matthew 6:10
'Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.

Next time we will find God's will for each of us so we can begin living it out and having the fullness of Christ's joy in our lives.