Joy!

2/10/2021

Written By: Debi Pierson

The TV is on. I’m mostly ignoring the Super Bowl and peeking over my screen at a commercial periodically. A beer commercial comes on. I’m half-listening. And I look up to see the joy-filled faces of well-known athletes. I’m paying more attention now. And then I hear it. “What if we were wrong this whole time? Wrong in thinking that joy happens only at the end - after the sacrifice, after the commitment, after the win,” the narrator said. “What if joy is the whole game, not just the end game?”

There it is. Joy. THANK YOU, GOD for Super Bowl beer commercials. (I guess I should thank an ad exec somewhere too.) Now my brain is working this idea over. Our victory in Heaven (our end game) and the inescapable JOY we’ll experience there are certainly something to long for. But what about now? In the game of day-to-day life, can we expect abundant joy? Does God want us to be joyful? If we’re considering recent history—the impact of a global pandemic and THE WORST election cycle many of us have ever endured, it’s tempting to believe that joy will be illusive this side of Heaven. If you’re contemplating a recent diagnosis, a red number on your bank statement, another call from your child’s school… you might further question God’s desire for us to view joy as the “whole game, not just the end game.” If we only look at our present circumstances and not at God, I fear we’ll miss what He’s telling us in scripture and what Christ and His apostles modeled for us.

According to ChristianBibleReferences.org, the word “joy” appears 218 times in the NIV. More in the Old Testament (because Psalms) than in the New Testament, in fact. That was strange to me. Those OT times were DARK, folks. If you’re new to Bible study—brace. your. self.

Anyway, we have plenty to learn from the OT about God’s expectation that His people should be joyful. In Deuteronomy 28:47-48, God, via Moses, is doing one of those if/then pep talks. Chapter 28 starts with a ton of amazing promises of God’s blessing for His people if they “faithfully obey”. He proceeds to give a stern warning specifically about a lack of joy here:

“Because you did not serve the LORD your God joyfully and gladly in the time of prosperity, therefore in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and dire poverty, you will serve the enemies the LORD sends against you. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you.” Yikes, got it, serve with joy. But in our defense is THIS a time of prosperity? Are we off the serving-with-joy hook because 2020?

Not actually.

Fruits of the Spirit, memorized in our home by a catchy tune my kids learned in Sunday School, are found in Galatians 5:22-23. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” The Spirit (i.e., the Holy One living in believers) produces joy and these attributes aren’t attached to conditions like prosperity or health or election results. In fact, the only conditions for experiencing joy during the whole game, according to Jesus, are abiding in Him and keeping His commandments.

John 15:8 “By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full.”

I think the beer people came to the same conclusion, albeit with a different game plan. No one is suggesting we won’t experience pain in the game. But because of Christ and because our end game—OUR VICTORY – is secure, we can experience joy for the whole game even when disappointment and sorrow are on the field. We are “sorrowful, yet rejoicing” (2 Corinthians 6:10). Joy is the whole game, because God is the whole game AND the provider of the end game. “And you shall rejoice in all the good the LORD your God has given you and to your house…” (Deuteronomy 26:11)

Cheers to joy!