Finding Joy NOT Happiness in the Lord (5)

Posted on March 10, 2017 by Lynn

finding-joy-not-happiness-in-the-lord-5So now we come to the practical application side of this series and why I titled it: Finding J0y NOT Happiness in the Lord.

Although there are many great books written on JOY, these two have been particularly impacting on me personally: 11 Keys that Unlock the Door to Joy and Keep It Open, by Ken L. and Gaylyn Williams Whalin (Broadman & Holman, Nash. Tenn., 1993). And The Key to Lasting Joy by: T.W. Wilson (Word Books, Waco, Texas, 1987).

Practical Ways to Finding Joy NOT Happiness in the Lord:

Have a growing “heart knowledge” of God.

  • The more intimate we are with God, the greater our joy.  If you are not joyful at this time, try seeing if it’s because you have more of a head knowledge than heart knowledge of God.

How do we have a heart knowledge of God?

  1. Focus on what God has done in your life and thank Him.
  2. Read Psalms and praise Him for Who He is.
  3. Personalize scripture by inserting your name in places where pronouns or other nouns are used in the text.  Begin with Ephesians 1 & 2.
  4. Discover verses that describe God, and memorize them.
  5. Meditate on Scripture.
  6. Sing praise and worship songs from your heart.  (I especially like to do that in my car!  Sure, I get strange looks from other drivers, as I belt out “Shout to the Lord…” but that’s okay 🙂 )
  7. Share with others what God reveals to you about Himself.
  8. Claim God’s promises in tough times.
  9. Pray through Scripture.
  10. Keep a journal, or prayer journal so you can look back periodically and be reminded of God’s activity in your life.

We must keep growing in Him, it is an ongoing process.  (2 Peter 3:18).  We’re able to joyfully give thanks to God as we come to know Him and all He means to us. (Col. 1:10-12).

  • God’s Word Reveals Joy.
    • Spending time in His Word is important to finding JOY in Him.
    • It’s not merely reading the Word, but experiencing it (as my Pastor likes to say.)

How?

  1. Carve out time.  (I know we live busy lives, but even a few minutes a day will help you find Joy in the Lord through the reading of His Word.)
  2. Read the Bible, not just books ABOUT the Bible.  (I have dozens of great devotionals etc. I might use to “whet my palate” so to speak, but the “main course” has to come from the Bible reading itself.)
  3. Memorize God’s Word.  (I really struggle with this, I’ll be honest.  So here are a few practical suggestions on how to memorize scripture):

As you start to memorize a verse…

  • first choose which translation you wish to use to memorize a passage of scripture.  I prefer NIV but there are many great translations to choose from.
  • read in your Bible the context of each verse you memorize.
  • try to gain a clear understanding of what each verse actually means.
  • Read the verse through several times, thoughtfully, aloud, or in a whisper.  Each time you read it, say the topic, reference, verse, and then the reference again.
  • pray about what you have just read, and pray that God will give you success to commit the verse to memory.

As you begin to memorize the verse:

  • say the verse aloud as much as possible
  • learn the topic and reference first and repeat it after the scripture passage.  ie: Philippians 4:13 “I can do all this through him who gives me strength.” Philippians 4:13 
  • for longer passages, learn the first phrase of the verse, and once you have mastered that, continue adding more phrases until you have learned the entire passage.
  • write the verse out, put it on “post it” notes and post in conspicuous places – like the bathroom mirror or your computer.
  • partner with someone to help you memorize the verse.
  • practice, practice, practice!

The idea is to:

  • Fill your mind with scripture.
  • Meditate on scripture.
  • Pray through scripture.
  • Get involved in a Bible Study (individual or group)
  • Dig deeper – do a word study or a book/chapter study on your own.

This will allow you to gain “heart knowledge” as well as “head knowledge” about the Lord.  You are actually building a trust relationship with God through these exercises.  Why?

  1. Because Trust Releases Joy.
    • “Joy is a deep settled confidence that a loving Heavenly Father is in control of the details of my life.”

We have a choice how we will respond to our trials.  We can worry, get uptight, complain or we can rejoice in Him knowing He is in control.  We can measure our trust in two ways:

  • Do we really say: God will use this for good in my life? (Romans 8:28)
  • We can measure our trust by the degree of contentment we feel as we choose to focus on Him in the midst of our trials.

2.  Obedience Restores Joy. – obey God and have joy; disobey Him and be miserable.  (Luke 11:28)

Sin is like spiritual leprosy – it robs you of joy, and deadens your spiritual senses.  If you are deliberately disobeying His Word, how can you expect God to give you His full measure of JOY?  The list of blessings for obedience is endless, but be careful that you are not being obedient just to obtain JOY – that should NOT be our motivation.  (John 14:23-24)  We obey because we desire an intimate relationship with God.

3.  Prayer Maintains Joy.

  • Your prayer life may be one of the best indicators how rich or how poor your JOY life is.

Look at the following prayers of Paul:  Col. 1:9-11, Phil. 1:9-11 and Eph. 3:16-19.  Each of these can be used as model prayers for yourself, for your family, children, friends and others.

Homework today:

  • 1.  What one thing are you doing now that is helping you to have a “heart knowledge” of God?
  • 2.  What thing or things would you like to do better?
  • 3.  Commit to doing one of those things you’ve listed in question 2 (ie: memorizing scripture, going to a Bible Study, praying, reading Scripture etc.) and make a point of sharing that commitment with a trusted other (spouse, relative, friend) so you will be held accountable.

(*This blog series was first published by Lynn Dove in April/May 2012.)

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Finding Joy NOT Happiness in the Lord (4)

Posted on March 8, 2017 by Lynn

finding-joy-not-happiness-in-the-lord-4Today we continue our series of Finding Joy Not Happiness in the Lord.  If you haven’t read the three previous posts of this series, I invite you to do so now so you will be caught up.  How many of you have been keeping up with the homework?  Has it been a helpful exercise for you?  I sincerely hope so.

As Ken L. Williams says in his book “11 Keys That Unlock the Door to Joy and Keep it Open”, “Sometimes joy flows from us like a gushing spring, but much of the time we must hold on for dear life.  Joy can be elusive.”

Joy is a way of living, it takes time to foster joy, it is the result of a hard won victory over entrenched attitudes of apathy, pessimism, doubt, unbelief and despair.  For true joy, Christ is the only source.  The Morales’ know this.  Rev. Lang knows this.  I know this.

In 2001, I was diagnosed with breast cancer.  It was a two year battle with the disease, but it was also a two year endurance course of trying not to dwell on my circumstances but to focus entirely on God.  Some days I did a better job of it than other days, but that was when God would bring people into my life who would walk with me through the struggles and always, always, always point me towards God.  You may find it weird for me to say but I truly “rejoiced in the Lord” through my cancer journey.  Would I want to go through cancer again?… no way, but I understand better than ever before what it means to “rejoice in our suffering” as Paul states in Romans.  I learned more about God, about my family, about my friends, about my church family and about what was important in life, and what was not.  I am convinced that had I focused on my circumstances, I would not be the person I am today.  The scars of the experience would have overwhelmed me in more ways than one.

Now you’re probably thinking to yourself…”OH OH…looks like the only way I can experience true JOY in the Lord is to go through a really bad experience“…a valley experience I call it.  Rather than try to avoid the bad experiences to find JOY you’ve got to seek out those negative experiences to find joy…right?  Believe it or not, there are some radical world philosophies out there that demand just that.  Ever hear of spiritual self-abuse?  It’s actually a form of self-mutilation where you whip yourself or starve yourself etc. to somehow grow spiritually closer to God.  I guess followers of this philosophy feel they must somehow experience the same kind of pain that Christ did when He went to the cross.   That is, in my opinion, slightly insane.  However, the scriptures that state denying oneself and picking up your cross are extremely valid when we start talking about how to find JOY in the Lord.

The joy of God came to full fruition in human history in the Person of Jesus Christ.  Joy and exultation run through the entire biblical account of the coming of Christ. (Luke 1:14; Luke 1:44; Matt. 2:10).  The most familiar passage is the angel’s announcement of “good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people”. (Luke 2:10).  Jesus spoke of His own joy and the full joy He had come to bring to others (John 15:11; John 17:13).  He illustrated the kingdom of Heaven by telling of the joy of a man who found treasure (Matt. 13:44).  Zacchaeus was in a tree when Jesus called him, but he quickly climbed down and received Jesus joyfully (Luke 19:6).  He had found life’s ultimate treasure in Christ.

As Jesus’ death approached, He told His followers that soon they would be like a woman in labour, whose sorrow would be turned into joy (John 16:20-22).  Later they understood, when the dark sorrow of the cross gave way to the joy of the resurrection (Luke 24:41).  Viewed from this perspective, eventually they came to see that the cross itself was necessary for the joy to become real (Heb. 12:2).  Because of His victory and the promise of His abiding presence, the disciples could rejoice even after the Lord’s ascension (Luke 24:52).

The Book of Acts tells how joy continued to characterize those who followed Jesus.  After Philip preached in Samaria, the people believed and “there was great joy in that city”.  (Act. 8:8).  After the work of Paul and Barnabas in Antioch, “the disciples were filled with joy, and with the Holy Ghost” (Acts 13:52).  After the conversion of the Philippian jailer, he “rejoiced, believing in God with all his house”. (Acts 16:34).

Joy in the Christian life is in direct proportion to a believer’s walk with the Lord.  As believers we can rejoice because we are in the Lord (Phil. 4:4).  Joy is a fruit of a Spirit-led life (Gal. 5:22).  Sin in a believer’s life robs the person of joy (Ps. 51:12).

When a person walks with the Lord, the person can continue to rejoice even when troubles come.  Jesus spoke of those who could rejoice even when persecuted and killed (Matt. 5:12).   Peter and James, like Paul, echoed the Lord’s teachings about rejoicing in troubles (1 Peter 1:6-8; James 1:2).

Joy in the Lord enables people to enjoy all that God has given to them.  They rejoice in family (Prov. 5:18), food (1 Tim. 4:4-5), celebrations (Deut. 16:13-15), friends (Phil. 4:1).  They share with others the joys and sorrows of life: “Rejoice with them that do rejoice, weep with them that weep.” (Rom. 12:15).

Let’s look at Phil. 4:4…”Rejoice in the Lord always.”  It does not say rejoice sometimes, or rejoice only when we feel like it, it says “rejoice in the Lord always.”  (In the Lord) means in His fellowship, in His love and grace and in the knowledge of His dominion over our lives and His rule over all our destiny.  In other words, the Lord has EVERYTHING under control.

Which leads us to our first MYTH about JOY:  The idea that if we’re NOT joyful every minute of every day, we’re terrible Christians.  That myth can rob us of the little joy already in our lives.  Every Christian struggles with a lack of joy at times, but God’s response is compassion, not accusation and anger.

We can choose JOY.  If God commands joy, then it must be possible to choose it.  During my cancer experience I had two choices as I saw it: I could choose to laugh or I could choose to cry.  That was my philosophy throughout the experience.  Laughter gave way to hope, hope to life,…the opposite was true when I cried; I felt defeated, and hopeless.  There are all kinds of studies about terminal illness about the effects of laughter and the longevity of life:  people who laugh and have a generally positive attitude during their illness, live longer and have a better survival rate than those who tend to be pessimistic and discouraged throughout their illness.   So, very soon after my initial surgery and during my recovery and especially during my chemo treatments, I made a point of trying to laugh every day.  That wasn’t always easy especially as the side effects of chemo kicked in, so I recruited people to send me emails to encourage me, especially when I was too weak and sick to leave the house.  I would get on the computer and people from around the world sent me wonderful, humourous anecdotes, silly jokes, pictures, videos and I would immediately feel better because they made me laugh.  When I was feeling overwhelmed and discouraged, my family, friends and church family supported me in hundreds of little acts of kindness and always they tried to bring a smile to my face.  When I couldn’t do it for myself, I found JOY through others!

Of course there is a down side if you choose NOT to have JOY.  Then we are vulnerable to a host of what has been called the Devil’s D’s: doubt, discouragement, disillusionment, dejection, depression, despair and disaster.

Homework today:

  • 1.  Do you think it is possible to choose “JOY”?  Why or why not?
  • 2.  Should Christians be “joyful” all the time?  Why or why not?
  • 3. Several scripture verses were mentioned today.  Read through them and choose two that speak to your life right now.  Memorize them, or write them in your prayer journal, or share them with a friend.  If you’re brave, share them in a comment here and tell me why they have impacted you today.

(*This blog series was first published by Lynn Dove in April/May 2012.)

 

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Finding Joy NOT Happiness in the Lord (3)

Posted on March 6, 2017 by Lynn

finding-joy-not-happiness-in-the-lord-3Perhaps last day’s homework assignment left you a bit wary, questioning why you do some of the things you do.  Sometimes it’s good to get a healthy perspective on things.  Some of you may have thought, “I have to work to support my family.  It’s not an activity that makes me happy but I have to do it anyway.”  It is absolutely true.  As I tried to tell my sixteen year old daughter when she balked at doing her homework by saying, “I will never, ever use this Math after high school so why bother doing it in the first place?”  I said, “You just gotta do what you gotta do”.  (I’m thinking of having a t-shirt made up with that saying!)

It proves my point.  If we base our happiness on doing activities, or getting “stuff”, we will be quickly disappointed.  Sometimes we just “gotta do what we gotta do” to survive.  It may not make us happy…and here it comes…it can be a JOYFUL experience.  How?

You do not need “stuff” to be joyful.  In fact the Bible points out that JOY can be achieved in good times AND bad times.  JOY is not dependant on the circumstances of life.  JOY is a constant.  Joy can be experienced in the middle of a very negative experience, but it can only occur if God is the focus and not on the circumstance itself.

Let’s read Romans 5:1-5.  Paul tells us to “rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.  And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who He has given us.”

2 Corinthians 4:16-18  “Therefore do not lose heart.  Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.  For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.  So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.  For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

Someone asked me once how it is that some people can handle personal tragedies so well while other people seem to fall apart when hardships befall them.  Let me give a few examples:

In 1986, my husband, Charles worked for an oil company about the same time the federal government brought in some oil royalties that saw the bottom drop out of the oil industry in Calgary.  The result was massive layoffs and my husband found himself without a job as did a few men and women from our church family then.  We did all the practical things to get by: downsize, modify our budget etc. etc., but one thing we agreed upon was that we would not stop tithing to our church and we would focus on God as we remembered our life verse from Proverbs 16:9….”You may make your plans but the Lord determines your steps”.  We watched in awe as God opened doors and led Charles to new career ventures.  It was an awesome time in our lives because we knew that God was in control and we leaned on the promise that He would never leave us or forsake us.  Certainly there were times of worry and certainly we had to modify our lifestyle, but we grew closer to God through the experience as never before.  On the flip side of this: another man from our church who lost his job the same time Charles did crumbled.  He stopped attending church, he ended up losing his home; his wife ended up leaving him.  We completely lost touch with him and to this day I do not know what became of him.  I don’t know why we seemed to handle the upset better than he did but I think it is because we did not focus on our circumstance, we focused on God.  We found true joy in following God through this very trying circumstance.

I can’t help but think about some other families who seem to know what it means to rejoice in the Lord no matter the circumstances of life:

Rev. Dale Lang whose son was murdered in the hallway of his school years ago.  Rev. Lang was able to forgive the young man who shot his son and even ministered to him in jail.  You can’t have that kind of forgiveness if you are focused on the circumstance.  He focused on God and was able to forgive his son’s murderer.

Pastor Stauffer in Edson lost his 14 year old daughter, Emily.  She had been raped and murdered.  In the family’s statement to the press only hours after her body was discovered,  they made a point of saying that they “rejoiced” that Emily was with her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

I think of the Morales family.  Pastor Jesse (as he was lovingly called) was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) in 2008.  Jesse struggled valiantly with the disease for nineteen months, even leading a few of his caregivers to follow Christ even though he had difficulty speaking towards the end of his life.  If you want to witness first hand what it means to be “rejoicing in suffering”…look at the Morales’ during that difficult time in their lives!  Jesse’s daughter Stephanie posted this blog:

“Posted by Jesse’s Girl at 3:09 PM 1 comments                        

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Gotta Give Him Praise!

Upon returning from the Philippines, my dad decided not to go back to work due to his decrease in functional ability. This was a pretty devastating step but at the same time, we were thankful that he was able to know when it was time to stop. We had a bad “breathing” scare not too long after. The doctor assessed his breathing ability (which is the biggest indicator of lifespan) and it looked grim at first. He saw a Repirologist today who confirmed that he is at 73% of normal capacity and has not declined since August. Each new day is a gift, and every day that the symptoms don’t worsen, we celebrate!

Since then, 4 of his siblings have been up to visit. The gold girls, Cleo, Fely and Rose made the long drive up for only a 1 day turn around a couple of weeks ago. Among the many highlights was my Aunt Cleo stir-frying dad’s healthy breakfast cereal (concocted by Aunt Remie) thinking it was brown rice. She added the usual onions, soy sauce, etc. to OATMEAL and the best part was… she ate it! (Bless her heart for not wanting to waste food!) You have to find joy in the little things right?

Last week Uncle Lope and his family were up and thank you to Les especially who has the wonderful gift of humor. I know you made him laugh hysterically on more than one occasion. Uncontrollable laughter is a symptom of ALS but we’ve unanimously decided it’s our favorite symptom! Praise God for laughter.

This is a hard road that we’re on. But as I was told by a very godly woman, you have to revel in those little moments of happiness that God brings your way. Otherwise, we’re doomed to being a victim of circumstances.”

Jesse passed away on August 17, 2009.  We attended our friend’s memorial service along with hundreds more.  It was a celebration of a life well lived!  Canadian Country superstar, Paul Brandt even sang at the service, his life having been touched personally by Pastor Jesse.  Every year, his family, friends and church family participate in the ALS run held in Calgary to raise money for ALS awareness.  Jesse left a timeless legacy.  He never focused on his circumstances…his sole focus was on the Lord!

Homework for today:

  • 1.  What challenging circumstances are you facing right now?
  • 2.  Are you able to look beyond those challenges to find a sense of “joy” even in the midst of those circumstances?  Why or why not?
  • 3.  Pray to the Lord to help you find “joy” even in the midst of hardship and challenges.

“2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. 6 But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7 That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do…

12 Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.”  (James 1: 2-8,12)

(*This blog series was first published by Lynn Dove in April/May 2012.)

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