Fighting Joylessness as Forgiven Sinner

The foundation of our joy is Jesus Christ: His blood, His righteousness, His living, His dying, and His rising from the dead. What a powerful line that is for us to remember. I want to begin today by making a distinction between happiness and joy. When I was young, I thought both words to mean almost the same thing that is that "joy" and "happiness" were namely about "feeling good". However, if we look at the Bible...the words translated into joy appear many more times than the words translated into happiness. Depending on the translation, the Bible uses the words “happy” and “happiness” about 30 times, while “joy” and “rejoice” appear over 300 times.

In an article in Psychology Today, research is also showing that happiness is different from joy. Here are a few quotes from an article saying, "happiness is external. It's based on situations, events, people, places, things, and thoughts...The transitory things of life are happiness-based...When you need nothing more than your truth and the love of a good God to bring peace, then you have settled into the abiding joy that is not rocked by relationships. It's not rocked by anything."

So today's blog post is to remind us that joy doesn't come from external circumstances nor does it come from even "inward feelings. Happiness might come from external things or internal feelings. But true joy comes, the joy that cannot be quenched by hell fire, the joy that survives for all eternity...this joy comes from the Gospel of Jesus Christ and what He has done for you and me.

Ephesians 6:7 says, "Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people, because you know that the Lord will reward each one for whatever good they do, whether they are slave or free." This passage is referring to slaves obeying their masters wholeheartedly. Because believe it or not, there existed a lot of slavery in Roman times and when a servant became a Christians it was a HARD and DIFFICULT struggle to serve their masters. (If you put yourselves in a Christian slave's shoe, its like serving two masters: an earthly master and a Heavenly Lord.) So Paul reminds us that even if we were servants and slaves to slave masters...we can still have joy. Why? Because of Jesus Christ. As Christians are reward is in heaven, not on earth, so let us remember who we are serving the Lord of time, space, and all living things.