A Heart of Joy
“I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, Always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy, For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now; Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ”. Philippians 1:3-6
Last Sunday, our pastor began a study in the book of Philippians, known as the “joy book”. In his letter, Paul urged the believers at Philippi to be consistent in Christian living. A believer who is consistent in following Christ and God’s word will have the joy of which unbelievers know nothing. Of course, being a believer doesn’t mean that one’s road in life is smooth without some potholes and some serious collisions because we live in a sin-cursed world among a greater number of unbelievers than believers. However, in the final analysis, even with the suffering and hardships, life is infinitely better with Christ than without Him. As the saying goes, our worst day with Christ is better than our best day without Him. One really must be a follower of Christ to understand that statement.
Paul was grateful to the Lord every time the members of the Philippian church came to mind. He didn’t have the same thoughts toward some of the churches wherein there were problems such as false teachers, infighting, envy, and a lack of generosity toward the poorer congregations. He was thankful for the things these other churches were doing right but was sorry that he had to rebuke them. It was refreshing to him that the folks in Philippi were growing in faith. I would not hesitate to say that all pastors of Bible-preaching churches are pleased when their members are growing in faith and living out their faith. Paul’s letter was also meant to encourage the people to be consistent in their faith. No matter how well Christians are living out their faith, there is always room for improvement.
Paul’s heart was filled with joy when he got on his knees and began to thank God for these faithful folks as he made requests for their benefit. These believers “got it”, that is, they understood that commitment to Christ was a serious matter, not to be taken lightly, but rather carried out daily with obedience, perseverance, and joy in the Lord, a bright spot in a broke3n and dark world. Paul’s confidence did not lie in the Philippian church members, but in the Lord. He knew that their faith and perseverance were by the Lord’s hands and not by human effort. He also knew that God would continue to strengthen, bless, encourage, and watch over these folks until Jesus returns. Every generation of believers have looked for Christ to return in their lifetime. Paul was likely no different in that respect.
As stated earlier, believers have a joy that cannot be obtained by living for the world and all it holds. Think about it. What does the world hold? So far, I have seen that the world is mostly full of trouble and woes which, if we allow them, can diminish our joy. During the service of last Sunday, our pastor asked us to get out our phones and text to him identifying what things steal our joy. I texted “worry” as did a couple of other people. Scripture tells us not to worry, and we know that God is in control, and He can take care of anything that worries us. However, not worrying is easier said than done. There are many things that can steal our joy if we let them. However, God doesn’t want us to go through life as a big worry wart. We are to cast all our cares on the Lord because He cares for us (I Peter 5:7). However, Peter also wrote that there was something else that we had to do first: humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God for grace is given to the humble (I Peter 5:5-6).
From Unger’s Bible Dictionary, we find three definitions of joy. The first is “a delight of the mind arising from the consideration of a present, or assured possession of a future good”. I would say that this definition means that one has a happy feeling about something. The second definition is a “moral joy”, that is the feeling that comes from having peace and contentment. I guess one could say that moral joy is knowing that one did the right thing. The third definition is “spiritual joy” which, to me, is knowing that I am accepted by God through Christ, and that my future is secure because I will be with Christ throughout eternity. I think perhaps that is what is known as “joy unspeakable and full of glory” (I Peter 1:8). Maybe Peter called joy “unpseakable” because if one has that kind of godly joy, it is nearly impossible to explain to someone who doesn’t have it.