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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Finding Joy NOT Happiness in the Lord (2)

Posted on March 3, 2017 by Lynn

finding-joy-not-happiness-in-the-lord-2Today I continue my series on Finding Joy NOT Happiness in the Lord.

How many of you did your homework?  For those who did, I would be interested to hear what “happy” thing you did and why it made you happy.  You can leave me a comment if you’re brave enough to share.  To others, did you just avoid the whole activity because you thought it might stress you out more than make you happy?  Believe it or not some people even avoid “happy” activities because it can be an added stressor in their lives.  Don’t believe me?  I know people who find Christmas the most stressful time of year…

I love dinner parties but they stress me out planning them!  I’ve nearly had a nervous breakdown planning a child’s birthday party…(I told you yesterday I was an A-type personality!)

Sometimes it would be so easy to avoid those activities but let’s face it, avoiding stressful activities, whether they give us happiness or pain is pretty impractical.

Now I don’t know about you, but I would say that this would be a constant struggle for me to try to avoid anything in my life that would cause me pain, hurt, distress or upset.  In fact, I would think this is an impossible goal…and yet many men and women in this world have embraced this philosophy.

Ever heard the expression “If it feels good, do it.”?  We live in anything but an altruistic society, where the pursuit of happiness is entirely centered around one’s own wants, desires, and needs.  Just look at today’s advertising.  It is entirely centered on what we should buy so we will be happy in today’s world: the cosmetic industry alone is a 30 billion dollar industry with a 20% growth rate each year!  We need to ask ourselves: can happiness be found bottled in a L’oreal jar, or found under the hood of a sport’s car, or found at the bottom of a yoghurt cup?…and yet that is exactly what the world would have us believe.  If we buy this or that, if we change this or that about ourselves, if we only think positively and never negatively, we will be truly happy.  It is a deception, it is a falsehood and unfortunately we buy into it over and over and over again, and for a time we may be happy, but it is fleeting, then we need to buy something else or do something else, or try something else… and that’s why the commercials never stop and why we are never completely satisfied and why we are never completely happy.

JOY is different.  Whereas happiness is described as a buoyant emotion that results from momentary plateaus of well-being.  Joy is bedrock stuff.  Joy is the confidence that operates irrespective of our moods.  Joy is the certainty that all is well, however we feel.  Joy isn’t a feeling based on circumstances, Joy is an attitude based on our relationship with God.

Joy is the happy state that results from knowing and serving God.  A number of Greek and Hebrew words are used in the Bible to convey the ideas of joy and rejoicing.  We have the same situation in English with such nearly synonymous words as joy, happiness, pleasure, delight, gladness, merriment, felicity, and enjoyment.  The words JOY and REJOICE are the words most often used to translate the Hebrew and Greek words into English.  JOY is found over 150 times in the Bible.  If such words as “joyous” and “joyful” are included, the number comes to over 200.  The verb “rejoice” appears well over 200 times.

Joy is the fruit of a right relation with God.  It is not something people can create by their own efforts.  The Bible distinguishes joy from pleasure.  The Greek word for pleasure is the word from which we get our word “hedonism”, the philosophy of self-centered pleasure-seeking.  Paul referred to false teachers as “lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God” (2 Tim. 3:4)

The Bible warns that self-indulgent pleasure-seeking does not lead to happiness and fulfillment.  Let’s read Ecclesiastes 2:1-11.  This is the sad testimony of one (Solomon) who sought to build his life on pleasure-seeking.  The search left him empty and disillusioned.

Pleasures Are Meaningless 1 I said to myself, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good.” But that also proved to be meaningless. 2 “Laughter,” I said, “is madness. And what does pleasure accomplish?” 3I tried cheering myself with wine, and embracing folly—my mind still guiding me with wisdom. I wanted to see what was good for people to do under the heavens during the few days of their lives.

4 I undertook great projects: I built houses for myself and planted vineyards. 5 I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. 6 I made reservoirs to water groves of flourishing trees. 7 I bought male and female slaves and had other slaves who were born in my house. I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me. 8 I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired male and female singers, and a harem as well—the delights of a man’s heart. 9I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. In all this my wisdom stayed with me.

10 I denied myself nothing my eyes desired;    I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my labor,    and this was the reward for all my toil. 11 Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done  and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.”

Proverbs 14:13 offers further insight into this way of life, “Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful.”  Cares, riches and pleasures rob people of the possibility of fruitful living (Luke 8:14).  Pleasure often enslaves people in a vicious cycle of addiction (Titus 3:3).  The self-indulgent person, according to 1 Tim. 5:6, is dead while seeming still to be alive.

Here is some more homework for you:

  • 1.  What are things that you strive for under the sun?
  • 2.  What pleasures (rewards) do you get from striving for them?
  • 3.  Are you happy in your pursuit of them?  Why or why not?

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

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