There’s been a lot of talk about “joy” and being “joyful” lately, a subject that Christian believers, especially, should know and care a lot about.
Yet, joy can mean different things to different people, and that’s certainly the case given how often it’s being used in a politically charged context these days. It seems for some, joy is a matter of getting what they want, when they want it. It’s an effervescence, a lightness of spirit, a carefree and unburdened attitude about all kinds of things. From this vantage point, being joyful is being happy and smiling a lot regardless of the mounting problems and toxic culture all around us.
To some, “joy” is found in the legalization of abortion, the codification of a made-up right to slaughter innocent children. “Joy” is the redefinition of the multi-millennia-old understanding of marriage, and upending the irrefutable fact that there are only two sexes, male and female.
For this confused segment, “joy” is revolution – theological, sexual, social, economic, and educational. It’s adding and subtracting from the inerrant and infallible Word of God. It’s decoupling of sex from marriage, liberalizing conservative traditions, redistributing other people’s money, and turning public schools into propaganda empires. It’s the government wresting from the Christian church the affections and responsibilities it’s borne since Jesus ascended into Heaven.
But none of that is true joy, and none of the people who subscribe to this distorted understanding of it are truly joyful.
Happy? Maybe – for a bit. Free-spirited and lighthearted? Temporarily. Content? No. In fact, radicals can be identified by their restlessness, agitation, irritation, and chaotic, disordered lifestyles.
For the Christian, true joy is a peaceful contentment that’s neither rocked by circumstance nor roiled by bad news and disappointment.
Pastor John Piper states, “Christian joy is a good feeling in the soul, produced by the Holy Spirit as He causes us to see the beauty of Christ in the Word and in the world.”
The late pastor and author Warren Wiersbe, who wrote a book titled Be Joyful based on Paul’s letter to the early Christians in Philippi, suggests the key to experiencing true joy here on earth comes down to the health of our minds.
“Paul uses ‘mind’ ten times, and also uses the word think five times,” Wiersbe writes. “Add the time he uses remember and you have a total of sixteen references to the mind. In other words, the secret of Christian joy is found in the way the believer thinks—his attitudes. After all, outlook determines outcome.”
“Rejoice in the Lord always,” Paul wrote. “Again I will say, rejoice” (Phil. 4:4).
Finding our joy “in the Lord” and not in the world is what allows us to weather the inevitable storms of life. It’s why we don’t melt down after an awful and unconstitutional court decision or a disappointing election.
Christians find true joy in the Lord and in the things He authors and loves: the union of a husband and wife in marriage, the birth of a baby, the fellowship of a family, the beauty of His creation, and the many ways humans use God’s gifts to reflect His glory, whether in art, music, writing, or any other uplifting endeavor.
Culture’s bad actors have long worked overtime to co-opt and corrupt the understanding of so many of God’s greatest characteristics and gifts, including love, hope – and now joy. Like the evil one, these manipulators always promise far more than they can deliver, which is why it’s the wise Christian who won’t fall for the con job, not this time, nor ever.
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