Complete Savior: Resurrection and Joy 2

Joy is of the very essence of God.  And knowing God in Christ bears the fruit of joy.  The resurrection brings joy which cannot be taken from us.

That, at least, is what I have concluded after 3 months of meditating on Scripture related to joy.

But what does that joy look like and what hinders that joy?

First, the essence of that joy is an abiding sense of well being -- well-being that is the fruit of redemption -- a well-being of knowing my life and eternity now rests in the care of Omnipotent and All-wise Love.  To live every day trusting to this God is the foundation of joy.

Second, that's because joy is killed by my heart's endless suspicions of God.  When life is not as I prefer, I hold God's character up to question.  Perhaps he is not wise, does not love, is not working all things for his glory and my good?  And I have trusted him???? How could I have done that??? That kind of heart thinking kills joy.

Third, that's because joy is killed by abiding in circumstances rather than in God and Christ.  I can measure my hearts resting place by looking at my joy or joylessness.  I find that joy is absent when I am focused on my circumstances -- whether good or bad.

Fourth, joy is killed when I spend lots of time studying my motives and my sin and very little time studying my Savior.  I study my heart because I believe deeply that I must be very serious about my life -- if I am not serious about my life and my heart and my motives -- then what will happen?  All this taking of myself seriously is nothing but deadly self absorption, even when covered with a veneer of Christ.  The Christian life is a gaze at Christ, not a long meditation on my navel. 

None of this minimizes sound doctrine or the call to holiness  but I find that sometimes my interest in sound doctrine if really more about my desire to get it right than my desire to see God in truth.  When I am endlessly busy being "careful" (a word that can reveal self-preoccupation more than Godward faith) -- and constantly analyzing and thinking and parsing the details of doctrine -- and not looking in the face of God -- then I have missed the point.

And, I have found that a look at Christ and joy in him is a far better antidote to sin and temptation than endless self analysis.  When temptation comes which offers to me alternate joy, I find myself saying. "Why would I trade clean joy and the face of God for the passing and dirty joys of sin?"  Far from discouraging holiness -- the focus on joy in Christ is a means of grace unto holiness.

FInally, I have found that joy is eternal.  C S Lewis, The Great Divorce, is a prolonged meditation on joy.  Yes, there may be some theological errors in it -- but I have read the book 3 times in the last few months and believe that Lewis speaks of joy more colorfully than most. He systematically shows how self-seriousness in all its forms is a resistance movement to the joy God offers in Christ. 

Here is a summary:  Sin is my refusing the joy that is in Christ.  Depression and misery are my poutings before God and my attempts to blackmail the cosmos -- refusing to come out and play unless the rules of the game are changed to make me happy in the way I want to be happy.  But again and again, Lewis shows that misery will not win, that joy will not be diluted in heaven, and that God will not be blackmailed by the selfish complaints of rebels.  Read it yourself.

To know the true God is to know the One who is infinitely joyful.

Comments

[Rick]

Gosh how I hate getting smacked with what I know and preach to others and refuse to do myself. Thanks for the nudge to look up from my herniated navel.