Worship is expressing our fullness and joy in our Savior. God longs for us to long for him—and this is so evident through our worship with him. On this particular morning at church a few weeks ago God’s presence was so evident—I could feel it. I can’t stop thinking about it. I glanced over to the right and I was seriously taken aback. There was a man standing there with both hands in the air worshiping, actually being held up by another man. It was one of the most authentically beautiful things I’ve ever seen. The man was belting out the lyrics to the each and every song. He was screaming “hallelujah”; and although his voice was very raspy and deep, it was actually a very sweet sound. A sound of joy echoed with each “HALLELUJIAH!” If we as humans were blind to physical ailments, you would never know this man was a paraplegic. He is wheel chair bound-his body that is. His soul is so clearly full of joy and laughter and screams for his savior Jesus! This sweet man could easily be angry, bitter, joyless, or maybe even envious, but he knows he has the only thing he will ever need to be fully satisfied—Jesus. He actually abides in Jesus and his love for him is so apparent. I say this because it truly does overflow! (Cool, right?!!!). It’s clear that this man knows that he has Christ & he doesn’t need anything else, and one day he will be running and jumping with Jesus in heaven!!! Praise God for that! I can’t even say that I personally know this man, but what I can say is that I see Jesus in him, and that is wonderful and beautiful. He is a living example of what it looks like to Glorify God and seek joy in him—despite his earthly circumstances.
Joy is so often missed or overlooked in Christianity—and it’s so important! Think about it, when you’re truly in love with someone, the depths of your heart long for this person. Pursuing a romantic love will make us do some crazy things. You can’t wait to spend time with them! This person brings you tremendous joy and happiness. The love is so amazing that it’s difficult to even put into words or express how you feel about this person. No matter what is going on in your life, this person can bring you peace and understanding. You have intimate moments with this person, unlike you have with anyone else. This is the joy we should seek to find in Jesus; and he is right there waiting for you! When we dwell and abide in the truths of Jesus, our hearts can’t help but be full of joy for the one who is unfathomably powerful and merciful—loving and gentle. This is the kind of joy that meets the needs of others, and brings glory to the kingdom of God.
Interestingly enough, one of the seven deadly sins is sloth! What the heck does that mean? A lot of people see it as lazy and think, “Like okay, I guess being lazy is bad!” But the Latin translation means acedia. Acedia is a state of “spiritual or mental sloth”, or “apathy.” I think this has become an epidemic among followers of Christ! It’s basically not having any real reaction; it’s a loss of feeling and lack of care really. You know logically about Jesus, but you don’t feel anything moving in your heart. I know I struggled with this for many years—I liked church and Jesus and wanted to know more—but I never cared enough to pursue it because I thought I knew better; and I think it goes back to forgetting the majesty and wonder of God. I think it goes back to our own resilience; we want to do everything on our own. I think it ultimately goes back to pride. We think we can do everything on our own, and the truth is we cannot. We become consumed with ourselves instead of consumed with knowing more of Jesus’ character. We think we will never really need God to come through—until we are in desperate need of him.
I have this quote that has always stuck with me, and it’s the very reason I will always pray for joy and a deeper intimacy with God: It’s from a book called Desiring God by John Piper.
“There is something about the fullness of God’s joy that inclines it to overflow. There is an expansive quality to His joy. It wants to share itself.”
So why have so many of us lost joy? Have we fallen in love with religion instead of Jesus? We’ve forgotten that Jesus didn’t intend for us to follow a set of rules with dead hearts or keep a checklist of good deeds. He intended for us to rejoice in him! To love and praise him so deeply that it pours over into our relationships with others, so that they might seek such an eternal love and find this same love and comfort in Jesus—and him alone. The truth is we will have hard days, bad days, and days from Hell! We will experience great suffering in our lives here on Earth and perhaps tragedies and deep pain. Jesus wasn’t ever unclear about that, we WILL suffer and bad things WILL happen. God tells us this in his word. But he also tells us that through him we can have everlasting satisfaction and joy knowing he is our king and protector, and that this life on Earth is very temporary! We have joy knowing all we will ever need is him—and he will never give up on us. We have joy knowing that God is sovereign and he is constantly working in each and every one of our lives at every second, molding our hearts, filling us with compassion, and longing for us to look at others the way he does—as beautiful worthy people created in his image to be radically loving, denying ourselves each and everyday.
In the words of my amazing sweet friend Jena Foster: “Time alone or time in your head is what you make of it. You can fill it with sadness, bitterness, self-pity, etcetra. Or you can fill it with delight. To delight in the blessings you’ve been given, and to delight in your creator. In turn, this will bear fruit and produce happiness in your loneliness.”
