Definition of Joy
These days, I’ve been sitting at the feet of my old mentor, Oswald Chambers. The man had a lot of wisdom and it all pointed to living and breathing for Jesus.
“Joy means the perfect fulfillment of that for which I was created and regenerated, not the successful doing of a thing.” *
I talk a lot about doing verses being. I never thought about joy in this way. Joy usually has the connotation of happiness. And happiness is dependent on circumstances.
Joy has much more depth than happiness.
Rethinking
I think I am not alone in this lifelong struggle of doing verses being. I often don’t feel like I have much worth unless I am accomplishing something. I have heard that this kind of thinking might have sprung from the Puritans, way back a couple centuries ago. The more I learn of history, the more current and relevant it is.
I think the first step toward joy is understanding that God loves us. Even if we are doing nothing. He doesn’t see failure. He doesn’t see confusion.
He sees His child.
So, we change our thinking. We are not just sojourners on earth who must make our way.
We are God’s children. We can focus on being. That is, being fulfilled with what He created us for. Then being joyful in that He went to great lengths to redeem us. He pursued us.
Following
Jesus’ joy lay in doing what His Father sent Him to do. Then Jesus said that as He was sent by His Father, He sends us.
To live as Jesus lived.
Listening to His Father.
Talking with His Father.
Loving the same way as His Father loves.
Joy Comes
In this, joy comes and lives in our being. Completeness as we bask in the fullness that God has for us. When happiness evades us, as we put aside worry, and in spite of our trials, joy sustains us.
“For he will not dwell unduly on the days of his life, because God keeps him busy with the joy of his heart” (Ecclesiastes 5:20 NKJV).
*My Utmost For His Highest by Oswald Chambers
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