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.
