Planting Joy Seeds

I have posted 105 times in the past year and six weeks. I have not posted at all in the past 5 weeks. I sat down this morning and looked over some of my old posts and marveled that I ever had that much to say. I'm quiet now. There has been a blanket of gray over things lately...much like the sky today. It's something I just can't seem to shake. This gray thing has spawned hungry searches through scriptures, prayer, and perusals over books on the Pursuit of God (Tozer) and the Power of Asking (Chambers). I know that God has promised that if we seek Him with all our heart, He will be found (Jeremiah 29:13-14). And I know that it's Jesus' desire that we our joy be complete (John 15). And since I can't seem to find either God or joy, I began to wonder what was wrong with my search. Sometimes there's nothing wrong with our search methods. Sometimes, I think, we just look for the wrong thing.

Nancy Leigh this morning had a guest that said,

People tend to think that if you have the Lord, then you ought to be joyful all the time. But that’s really not the picture that we have in the Bible of anybody who was walking with the Lord. Do we have the joy of the Lord in the midst of trial and difficulty? Yes. But we also suffer grief and sorrow and we live in a fallen world. Part of what that means is that I’m not going to be happy here—the way in which I’m going to be happy when I’m there, when I’m standing with the Lord.

This seems so two sided to me- talking from both sides of her mouth. What is this "joy of the Lord" if it doesn't produce joy here and now? Why only a joy for a future life in Heaven? I'm not against having suffering and sorrow. What I'm against is saying that there is this joy that I'm supposed to have all the time that isn't joy as I know it. It's some different kind of joy.

When you read about joy in the Bible, it seems to me to be the kind of joy that I'm familiar with. (Try it: Go to Biblegateway.com and put the word "joy" in the search box. See if it's not a joy you recognize!) It's joyful dancing in the streets when a battle has been won. It's leaping for joy at the birth of a baby that was believed impossible. It's joy at gazing on God's creation. I know these kinds of joy. And these kinds of joy can be squelched by death, injury, pain, sorrow, sin, sadness, shame, monotony, self-absorption, pride... the list goes on and on. If I listed all the joy-squelchers I'd be here all day!

But something else I noticed while I read these entries on joy was that much of the joyful writers' joy came from knowing that God was in control (see Psalm 97 especially). He speaks of Light-seeds and Joy-seeds being planted in my heart simply from realizing that God is in control. And in Isaiah 55, God says that the covenant He has made with us is that of a "sure, solid, and enduring love". So the God in control has a sure, solid, enduring love for me that isn't going to quit- that can withstand the storms of any death, injury, pain, sorrow, sin, sadness, shame, monotony, self-absorption, pride.... He will still be in control. He will still love me. According to Isaiah 35:8, God's road is a road of redemption, where joy is unfading. A road where He is buying me back from a life of monotony and self-absorption. So I go out on that road of redemption and walk into a life of joy that is complete (Isaiah 55:12-13). A life that knows that God is in control, despite the gray. And then, in my heart, a little tiny seed of Light is planted- a joy-seed.

It's good to know I don't have to wait until Heaven to have joy.