WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR JOY?

By Ada Nicholson Brownell

 “Even your Word agrees, ‘In this world we will have tribulation,’” I complained to the Lord one day, I suppose to justify the mullygrubs that had me by the heart.

Silent a moment, I felt the agony of depression. Then the remainder of Jesus’ words from that scripture came to mind. “But be of good cheer! I have overcome the world.”[1] Suddenly raptureous joy filled me. I was reminded my joyfulness doesn’t depend on circumstances or people.

Yet, I know I can kill joy if led away by false prophets. It would be easy to find someone to tell me to put myself first and seek my own happiness above all, when true joy comes from God and putting others before me.

“What happened to your joy?”[2] Paul asked the Galatian church after they were led astray by false prophets who made them forget faith and grace.

Paul spoke of joy often, although most of his God-inspired writing was done from a prison cell. Over and over he tells the Philippians, “Rejoice!”.

I wonder what Paul would tell me and the American church today. My family gave their hearts to the Lord in the era when people revealed their joy with such loud singing and shouting people peeked in the windows to see what was happening, sort of like Zacchaeus climbing the tree to see above the crowd following Jesus after He healed a blind man. Many gave their hearts to the Lord.

Joy, however, wasn’t in a style of music they heard, a red-faced shouting preacher, or people’s voices. Joy came from the truths people grasped with their hearts. People rejoiced from sins forgiven, even when it took an hour of struggling against Satan before their wills were submitted to God. People shouted praises and danced in the aisles when they received the infilling of the Holy Ghost, healing in their bodies, victory over fear, victory over habits, restored marriages, loved ones saved, peace in life’s storms.

Joy bubbled because the Lord would be with them in the valley of death and they would see loved ones again. Christians could get downright rowdy with joyful noise when they remembered their hope, “The Lord Himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.”[3]

One night, my unsaved aunt, a young woman with her life in crisis, came to church with my mom.

“I’m lost!” she screamed, interrupting the pastor’s sermon. “I’m lost!”

 She ran to the altar wept, screamed more, groaned, and put the fear of God in me and my siblings. Faithful Christians gathered around her with prayer rising like thunder. Then joy hit.  My aunt received the Holy Spirit, shouted and praised God around the altars, then danced and even ran across the platform rejoicing because of hope and sins forgiven.

She was so filled with joy she went to her night-club friends the next morning, feeling they would want what she found. Our aunt lived to age 92, still dancing and praising God. My siblings and I never forgot what happened that night, and still talk about it 60 years later.

Anyone who serves the Lord with all his heart has a measure of joy because the springs of living water Jesus gives never run dry.[4]

I’m praying for the day when our hearts, songs, services, our lives, once again reflect joy.

In the same conversation Jesus had with his disciples about cheer, He told them and us to “Ask God for the impossible, and receive, that our joy might be full.”[5] He explained for a little while they wouldn’t see Him, because He was going to the Father.“You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy.”[6]

 Peter spoke of our faith in Jesus filling us with “joy unspeakable and full of glory.”[7] Joy sometimes came when the disciples and apostles faced seemingly impossible circumstances. Paul knew he probably would lay down his life for his faith, yet he wrote of joy.

Most amazing, Jesus for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.[8]

 In the letter Paul wrote to the Galatians asking about their joy, he listed joy among fruits that come from living for God in contrast to a life of sin. Most important, according to Jesus’ words in John 15, if we are to bear fruit such as unspeakable joy, we need to be rooted and grounded in Him and His Word.

When my little branch is nourished by my Savior, joy pops out somewhere. 

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[1] John 16:32-33

[2] Galatians 4:15

[3] 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18

[4] John 7:37-39

[5] John 16:24

[6] John 16:20

[7] 1 Peter 1:8

[8] Hebrews 12:1-3