JOY!!!

I remember a time when I was a young Christian and having a difficult time with my circumstances. I do not remember what they were but I do remember I was not a happy camper. I knew enough Scripture to know a bit about trust and faith, and that I should be trusting the Lord in this matter, but I just could not get past being a gloomy gus. I was reading in one of my favorite sections of Scripture, John 13-17, and I came across this verse, “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled neither let it be afraid,” John 14:27. That statement from the Lord blew me away! He was hours away from the cross and all the suffering that would go with it and He was concerned about the peace of His followers. Later in John 17 He made it clear that He was not praying for only those closest to Him at the time, He was praying for us…those who would come after, in verse 20. As I thought about His situation then, and that He did indeed have peace, I was ashamed of myself since I was facing nothing like He was and I was acting like a wet dishcloth. Now I have talked about peace, when the topic is joy…can we have joy without peace? I would say yes and no…no because it is very human to lack peace and feel sad with no joy when your circumstances are lousy. BUT…look at the situation Jesus was in and He was talking to His disciples (and us) about peace, and joy..BOTH…and in the same teaching session, His last. And I say yes because He had it in the face of HIs own death. A verse from Nehemiah came to mind, “the joy of the Lord shall be your strength, 1:9. The Psalms are full of statements of joy from David the King, most of them when he was facing adversity. David always seemed to find strength to endure by being joyful about His God and His God’s love for him. I think we can do no less…take joy in God Himself! Someone once told me that the difference between happiness and joy is that happiness is controlled by our circumstances, joy is a gift from God! In thinking about that, we must be joyful and appreciative of God’s great love for us and all the wonderful promises in His Word. One fact can stand out in great difficulty: “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8. It doesn’t get any better than that!