My wife was over at a woman’s house from our church who had just lost her job last week to pray and support. Yesterday I talked to a guy who for maybe the first time in his engineering career at a major manufacturing firm – they build really cool guy stuff – has some worries about his future. Many of us seem to find a little less to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. Maybe joy is becoming a bit harder to find. That is no surprise as in harder times, life can hurt.
As I studied through joy in the Bible one thing struck me again and again: the simplicity of the “because”. In FEEL I talk a bit about because joy, how God gives us good reasons to have joy about real stuff, how joy is not this spiritual state that God just blesses us with when we spend enough time in prayer and fellowship – although I do believe that there are those time when God just comes close with his presence and brings a fullness of joy that cannot be explained.
Most of the time, we find praise and joy in because, in thinking on the good things that God has done in our lives. There are not many commands to have joy in the Bible that are not connected to something. Most Christians in the first century were not affluent, they were not powerful, they were not well connected. The because joy for them could not be what many of us have come to rely on like buying something new, finding some success, or even going to a movie or on a big vacation.
Real Christian joy is joy that lasts and joy you can have even in hard times, that James chapter 1, “whenever trouble comes your way, let it be an opportunity for joy.” The reason for that is “the because” cannot be taken away for those who have made a connection to God. As Paul writes:
All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding. (Ephesians 1:3-8, NLT)
There is not one thing in these words that can be taken away from you by anything you are facing… sickness, financial chaos, loss of job. Again and again the Bible takes our joy back down to the ground level, to the bedrock stuff we gained the day we put our trust in Christ.
So my word to you is to focus on the fundamentals in order to find your voice to be thankful this year. Absolutely, start with some great stuff in your life like good or improving family relationships, your kids, living in a country that is very blessed, gas that is once again under $2.00, and the fact that you have some really yummy pie to eat. But when it comes down to it, get back to the best stuff, the truest stuff, the up there stuff, the things that Jesus did for you to give new life. The hope we have from his promises even on the darkest nights, the joy in how he takes the really tough stuff and uses it for good in our lives, the love he is growing in us. That is truly enough to bring great and heart-felt thanks into every Thanksgiving – enough to make it a real celebration of gratitude.