Planting the Flag of Joy: Making Christ Your King!
Joy is not happiness. Happiness is an attitude of satisfaction or delight based on some set of circumstances. And we all know that circumstances change as fast as the wind. Happiness is never sustained. But joy? Joy is a mental attitude which is focused on Christ. It cannot be found in any other person, place, or thing. Joy comes from Jesus. It is a gift from God to those who believe the gospel, being produced in and by the Holy Spirit as they receive and obey the Scripture, being mixed with trials, and set their hope and their heart on the glory of the Lord. That's it. That is joy. It's not a fleeting feeling that we struggle to touch, to know, to keep - it is a mental attitude that we own. The real ticket is knowing how to own it.
The apostle Paul learned how to do that and in the book of Philippians he shares with us all the how's.
As I struggle with the details of my own life and how I have come to appreciate this great life-lesson that Paul has given to us all, I have learned that we show up with our flimsy faith and God responds with this from the hands of Paul, "And I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ." (Phil 1:6) And, Friend.... isn't that something wonderful to meditate on? I can testify that He, who began a "good work" in me, back in 1959 has been faithful through the years. Joy comes from that one thought. If nothing else - though there are millions of reasons - that would be enough.
