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Joy – Part 1
Written by on January 10, 2014
Winter times, especially the Christmas and New Year holidays can cause havoc on emotions. We as Christians being humans will experience all kinds of assaults, which may not make us happy, but we can have joy. The scripture we will use comes from 1 Peter 1:6-9:
6 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, 8 whom having not seen[a] you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory,9 receiving the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls.
There is a song that states, “I have the joy, joy, joy, joy, down in my heart. Where? Down in my heart to stay.” What is happiness? Happiness is the great feeling that you get when everything is going smoothly. Joy is what God gives you in the midst of trouble when you put that trouble in God’s hands. Both happiness and joy have no fear. Happiness has no fear because nothing is wrong, and everything is as we believe it should be. Joy has no fear because we have become willing and choose to trust God that our suffering is serving a purpose — a purpose that we have come to want more than anything else. I read somewhere a very good delineation between the two: “We have happiness BECAUSE of our situation, we have joy IN SPITE OF our situation.”
Have you, as a new creation in Christ, grasped and held steadfastly to that joy? Apostle Paul is talking about rejoicing. Re –joice. The transliteration of the word is agalliaō, which means to exult, be exceeding glad. The definition to exult, lifting up God in our hearts, being exceeding glad (pleased, delighted, merry etc) . When we lift of God in our hearts, that means certain things have to happen. We are recognizing that “God is”, “Jesus is my redeemer”, and “The Holy Spirit is my comforter and guide”. I am a child of God, I belong to Him. I may still be unhappy or sad, but I have joy because I know that God has everything concerning me in His hands. That is joy.
Paul starts out saying, in this you rejoice. What is the “this”? That your faith in Christ is pure, it is real. That faith is more than precious metals. That faith in Christ, we have never seen him walk the earth in physical form, but yet, we believe, is priceless. It is in believing that we are saved. Ephesians 2:8-9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”
Even though Jesus is not manifested in the flesh now, we believe. We rejoice in His kingdom that is to come. Because of Jesus’ sacrifice, His gift of Himself to us, we receive salvation. In that faith, that thought, Paul says we come alive again (re-joice) with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Joy that leaps out of our system and magnifies the hope in Christ. Joy that renews our strength. Joy that does not come from any earthly man, or material things, but the hope and the belief of the life in Christ. Joy that cannot be taken, through “various trials”.
Having unspeakable joy, does not mean your emotions may not become sad, happy, or that you may grieve. Those expressions of emotions will occur, however, remembering that we have a solid foundation, a rock, in Christ, we will not succumb to them.