WHEN I was an active Elder at Westminster OPC, each elder was assigned a portion of the membership as a shepherding Flock Responsibility. At that time, I began to send these Lessons from the Garden – Friday Morning Greetings – out to my flock members with the intension to provide weekly spiritual growth reminders and encouragements. Over time, the list of recipients has grown. Now that I’m an Elder Emeritus I continue to sending these missives out with the same intensions in mind.
IN the course of my personal studies, I have acquired many quality and helpful devotional books. And although I confined most of my Lessons from the Garden commentary in The Complete Green Letters, I think going forward I’m going to break out from time to time with other valuable resources — like today!
TODAY’S reading is from a recently discovered devotional titled Every Day with Jesus by Selwyn Hughes. Selwyn Hughes (1928 –2006). Selwyn Hughes was a Welsh Christian minister who founded the Christian ministry Crusade for World Revival (CWR) and wrote over fifty Christian books. George Carey, the former archbishop of Canterbury, once described Hughes as a “giant in the faith.” I have truly been blessed in my reading of Every Day with Jesus. Today’s offering spoke to me in a particular manner. The topic is “joy.” I often told my students at CCA that there is a difference from happiness and joy. Happiness is determined by what “happens,” but joy in altogether different, an inner spring that is rooted much deeper within a Christian’s reality (James 1:2). A recent reading of the following devotion was something I truly need to be reminded of at this particular moment in time. I pray you find it an encouragement as well. So, with that…. here is “Joy – More Than Pleasure.”
In the inexorable riches of Christ,
Joe
Neh. 8:10; Isa 30:15; Job 2:10; Jas. 1:2; Prov. 21:30
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Joy—More Than Pleasure
Satisfy us in the morning with your faithful love so that we may shout with joy and be glad all our days. Psalm 90:14
One of the reasons why so many Christians do not experience the delights of spiritual joy is that they do not expect to. A woman who came into the experience of Christian conversion said, “Strange, but I never associated joy with God before.” How sad that many do not expect their faith to make them basically and fully joyful now. They think that joy is reserved for the hereafter. Our Lord pointed out to the disciples that it was for the present.
We can better understand this supernatural joy if we distinguish it from the pleasures of life with which it is sometimes confused. Spiritual or supernatural joy is quite different from pleasure or happiness. A worldling can experience pleasure and happiness, but he cannot experience supernatural joy. Indeed, worldly people often pride themselves in knowing how to experience pleasure.
Yet pleasure and Christian joy cannot be equated. Look with me at some of the differences. Pleasure depends on circumstances. It requires a measure of health and wealth. It demands that the life conditions be kindly, and thus it can be stolen from us by things like lack of money—or even a toothache. Christian joy is completely independent of circumstances. It is there in the believer even when “strength and health and friends” are gone, when circumstances are not only unkind but savage. Out of all the miracles I have witnessed in my life, none is more wonderful than the miracle of seeing Christ’s exuberant joy burst forth in those who are caught up in pain or persecution. The springs of Christian joy are deep within and can exist, no matter what the circumstances.
Prayer
O Father, how can I thank you enough for imparting into my sadness your unconquerable gladness? No matter what happens—all is well with my soul. I am so grateful. Amen.
Further Study:
Jn 16:17–33; Ac 5:12–42; 15:23–25; 2Co 6:10
How did the apostles respond to persecution?
How did Paul express it?
