You have probably heard the adage, “Money can’t buy happiness,” many times in your life. Well, maybe it can. It can definitely buy fun and popularity and even power. It can buy new relationships and a luxurious life. Seems to me that many people with money are pretty happy. What money, fame, authority, or friendships cannot buy, though, is joy. There’s a distinct difference, in my mind, between happiness and joy. Happiness is a temporary pleasurable experience; however, joy is eternal; it’s permanent and unconditional. And it’s only bought with a relationship with the sacrificial Savior, Jesus Christ.
Before the birth of Christ, God promised that His Son’s arrival would bring “a great joy” to a sinful world, a world of hate and anger and violence, the world in which we still live.
But the angel said to [the shepherds], “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.”
Luke 2:10 (NIV)
The New Testament reveals many men and women who received the “joy of salvation,” a supernatural ability to live gladly despite unfathomable hardship or turmoil. Regardless of her previous guilty conscience, the woman at the well found joy in Jesus’ forgiveness. Though initially doubtful, Thomas found joy in the resurrected Savior’s patience. Imprisoned, Paul and Silas found joy in Christ’s continual presence through the Holy Spirit. And each day around us, fellow Christians overcome devastating trials while still rejoicing in the omnipotence of God.
This eternal joy, a gift of grace, no doubt, is brilliantly illustrated in “The Ransomed of the Lord Return with Joy,” a poem by David Payne paraphrasing the sentiments of Isaiah 35:
The wilderness and dry land sings
As each becomes the place of springs
Where fountains play and streamlets flow
And fairest flowers shall freely grow,
Gold crocuses and Sharon’s Rose
Whose mystic petals each disclose
The beauty of the Son of God
Who once himself this desert trod.
God understands our difficulties because he experienced them, yet over and over again, he uses his creativity to remind us of the hope we have of answered promises unseen by us at this time. The refreshing waters and spectacular flowers of the desert become symbols of the love and mercy and grace God gives freely. Together, these things bring us joy, a confidence much greater than the happiness the world can offer.
questions to consider
- In your life, who exemplifies this illustration of joy? Who reflects the gladness of Jesus despite hard times?
- Where can you find such “springs” of joy in your desert life? How might your joy help you share Christ with someone else?
- In what areas of your life do you need to pray for more of this “fruit of the spirit”?
prayer
Father God, I pray that you will give me a life of joyful dancing, as you describe in Jeremiah 31:13, so that I may glorify you in gladness and despair:
“Then the virgin will rejoice in the dance,
And the young men and the old, together,
For I will turn their mourning into joy
And will comfort them and give them joy for their sorrow.”