The Joy of the Lord

Great week teaching for UCCF, Exeter CU and some guests from Exeter New Frontiers on joy and missions, and a God-glorifying life and small groups and all kinds of stuff. Loved interacting with Relay Workers. One thing that struck me was that when we talk about the joy of the Lord - something the Bible does all over the place and in which it roots our strength and our faith - people found it hard to nail down definitions. Here are a quick three:

• The joy of the Lord is the delight that Christians have in being satisfied in the Lordship of Jesus. Phil 3:1; 4:4 “rejoice in the Lord.” puts the word “lord” in quite deliberately. Rejoice that you have a ruling, wonderful king to whom you belong. I use the word “be satisfied” quite deliberately. We have joy in the things we rejoice in. And we rejoice in the things that bring us satisfaction. The joy of the Lord is the greatest of all joy because he is the person in whom we find the greatest satisfaction for our souls, and therefore the person over whom we do the greatest rejoicing
• The joy of the Lord is a settled character trait that the Holy Spirit produces in us as we rest in Christ. Gal 5:22, the fruit of the Spirit is Love, joy… And that is especially the case as we actively believe. We reckon on our belief and act on it. So Rom 15:13 “may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing.” And it is even more especially the case as we hope in Heaven – that is we actively believe and act on our belief about what happens after this life. So, Romans 5:2: we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God
• The joy of the Lord is the fresh appetite we get for God when we accept that we have no righteousness of our own, but accept that Jesus Christ is all our righteousness. It overwhelms earthly appetites for food or drink or sex or success with desire for the Kingdom. (Those things aren't bad, but they become bad when they overwhelm appetite for God) Romans 14:17: the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Delight, Spirit-empowered character, appetite, hunger, desire for God, rejoicing in the righteousness of Christ. When the Psalmist cries “I am consumed with longing for you” and our hearts leap, that’s it!That’s the joy of the Lord I am talking about.

Comments

[Matt]

Hi Marcus,
Sounds like great stuff! I was chatting to someone about Joy in the Lord the other day and he had heard a talk about joy and felt weighed down because of a perceived lack of joy in his life. He was responding as if joy was yet another thing he had to produce. What kinds of 'diagnostic questions' might you have asked to dig deeper with him? On a related note, how do you think we can talk about this joy without that resulting in a 'man-curled-in-on-himself' introspection? Is about looking out to Christ and leaving the joy bit to Him?
Matt

[Marcus]

Great questions. No, joy is not something we produce, it is an overflow of receiving grace. Is the person putting themselves in a position to receive from God?

Here are some of the diagnostic questions I would ask,

1. What are your Christian disciplines (for want of a better word) like? Are you enjoying the word and praying? If not, what is the block?
2. What is your worship life like? Do you ever diarise regular time to adore God and his Christ?
3. Is the reason for perceived lack of Christian joy spiritual, or is it possibly medical? Or circumstantial? When someone feels they have to "work it up" but their circumstances are difficult or they are struggling with depression it can just feel like a demand to climb an unclimbable mountain
4. Is the person rehearsing to himself what the Lord has done. Ps 103 is a good place to look for an example of someone feeling unjoyful who does that
5. Is the person reflecting on the promises of God to him and the benefits that Christ provides - adoption, forgiveness, new heart, new home in Heaven, the Holy Spirit, etc, etc
6. Is the person sticking at it, or is there a danger of assuming there are quick fixes and that getting to joy shouldn't be a fight? I recommend John Piper's book "When I don't Desire God - How to Fight for Joy"

[Matt]

Really helpful stuff there - thanks Marcus!