joy

I Peter 1:8-9

Everyone is looking for joy, and marketers know this.  Every commercial promises the same product: joy.  Want some joy?  Buy our hand cream. Want some joy? Eat at this restaurant, drive this car, and wear this dress. Every commercial portrays the image of a joy-filled person.

Joy.  Everyone wants it.  Everyone promises it, but can anyone deliver it?  Does it surprise you to know that joy is a big topic in the Bible?  The word joy is used 165 times in the Bible? Simply put: God wants his children to be joy-filled.  Just like a father wants his baby to laugh with glee, God longs for us to experience a deeply rooted joy.

The joy offered by God is different from the one promised at an auto dealership or local department store.  God is not interested in putting a temporary smile on your face.  He wants to deposit a resilient hope in your heart.  He has no interest in giving you a shallow happiness that fades when the wind is not at your back.  He offers you joy, a sincere, deep-seated, heartfelt sense of joy, guaranteed to weather the storms.

In 1 Peter, Peter writes to persecuted Christians. Their rights and property have been taken.  Their possessions and futures have been taken, but their joy had not been taken. Why? 1 Peter 1:8 says, “Though you have never seen Jesus, you love Him;  and even though you do not see him now, you still love him and have faith in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy,."  The source of their joy was Jesus!  And since no one could take their Jesus, no one could take their joy.

Prayer: God, help me experience true joy, a joy that can only come from you through your son Jesus. Thank you for Peter’s encouragement to us to go beyond a limited view of joy.

-mike mcgraw