Joy

So Easter Sunday (I think) this year, at church they played this song to a video.  It's a song you learn in Sunday School as a kid, but it's been redone in a solemn mood.  I remembered this song last night as I was going to bed and took forever to find it on YouTube but eventually found it!

Joy, such an ironic subject to talk about at this time for me.  I used to have it, and I think deep down inside it's still there somewhere, hidden away.  It's just locked away somewhere and I can't seem to be able to reach it right now.

So what is joy?  We think of joy as happiness often times.  When we are happy, we think that's joy.  But this isn't always the case.  There were people who were facing prison, even death, who had joy.  It is possible to have joy while you are in turmoil. 

James 1:2-3

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.

 

So we are to consider it pure joy when we face trials.  How is this even possible?  When you equate joy with happiness I can see how it would seem impossible.  I mean can you really be happy when you face harsh trials?  But joy does not mean happiness.  

You see, I used to have joy, and I know what it's like to have joy.  I know what the Scriptures mean by joy because I used to have it.  It's more than happiness, it's something hard to even explain really.  When I realized just how much God loved me, I had pure joy.  None of my problems mattered anymore.  The fact that God could love someone as despicable as me was the biggest shock for me.  It was a shock already that other people loved me, but God loves me?  A holy God loves me?  That's joy.  Joy is something beyond happiness.  Lots of things can bring happiness, but I think only God can bring pure joy.

Romans 15:13

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

 

1 Peter 1:8-9

 

Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls. 

 

Proverbs 10:28

 

The prospect of the righteous is joy, but the hopes of the wicked come to nothing.

 

I don't think this joy, pure joy that is, can ever truly be taken away.  It becomes hidden, so well hidden that we ourselves think it's gone.  But it can never truly be taken away from us as long as we are children of God.  When it's hidden, we need to find it again.  Pray for it again.  But it'll take work.  We have to be diligent in seeking Christ.  So no matter how hard it may be, no matter how much life might suck, we have to seek Christ.