What’s the worst day of the week? Monday, hands down. We live each week for Friday. Saturday follows. So far, so good. Yet, 48 hours later, we’re back to Monday. Grumpy faces and sour moods spring up like weeds in a garden. Our lives are groan, smile, repeat. We’re working for the ‘man,’ whoever he is. Probably some goat herder in the Andes.
For the majority of us, Christmas is the season for incredible joy and happiness. Yet, that creates the worst day of the year too. All the joy and laughter and happiness generated by Christmas disintegrates on December 26th, and we mope around the house wondering who stole the Christmas spirit. Why couldn’t it stay one day longer? In desperate clinging, people keep Christmas decorations up until around June 17th.
Big question: Since the Holy Spirit dwells within a Believer, and the Holy Spirit possesses immeasurable and indestructible joy, is it possible for a Believer to possess joy to the same degree? In other words, if you have the Holy Spirit’s joy, would that help you maintain a smile on Monday morning even when your fellow employee has rudely emptied the coffee pot?
Absolutely. The Holy Spirit’s joy is not human-produced. Human-produced joy is merely a synonym for happiness. All of us, Believers and non-Believers alike, have experienced joy-happiness enough to know it possesses two primary qualities: 1) it’s temporary, and 2) it’s based on circumstances.
We must stop equating happiness with joy. Whereas happiness is an emotion based on temporary circumstances, joy is a quality of life streaming outward from our deepest core, where the Holy Spirit dwells.
Suppose you wanted immeasurable and indestructible joy. How would you go about it? Jesus, in typical Jesus plain-speak, tells us.
In Luke 10, Jesus sends out seventy followers in pairs to proclaim His eventual coming to all the cities and villages in the countryside.
When the followers return, they return with joy (according to verse 17). Why? Because all their circumstances while they were journeying were positive. Wonderful, good things happened.
Then Jesus offers an excellent tidbit of wisdom in verses 19-20: “Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will injure you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven.”
It’s so simple most people can’t see it. They think perpetual joy can only be found in riches, power or living on a beach and letting sand fill every orifice of your body along with finding its way into all your bologna sandwiches.
Perpetual joy becomes ours when we stop searching for it on this planet. It comes when we say ‘yes’ to Jesus’ extraordinary offer to become a member of His eternal family. We say ‘yes,’ and our name is recorded in the Book of Life.
Of course, we continue living lives bombarded with frustration, sadness, and anger. Illness hits us, poverty, death—you name it—the world has a way of making life an icky bowl of misery.
Yet we remain people who have our names written in the Book of Life. Whatever issues smash into our lives here, they can never erase our names out of that Book.
With joy, we can’t think of the next life without smiling. Our thoughts often drift to such questions as “What does God look like?” What does it mean to be immersed in glory?” “What does a life absent all evil feel like?”
In Luke 23:43, Jesus promises the thief on the cross that he will, on that very day, be with Him in paradise. Surely, His words lifted the man’s spirits, maybe even bringing a smile to the man’s lips even though his present situation could only be described as miserable wretchedness.
Because his name was written in the Book of Life, the thief knew that in only a few hours, he would be spending eternity in a wonderful life beyond his comprehension. Jesus called it a paradise. Not even hanging on a cross could diminish his joy.