Unstealable Joy, by Keith

I posted a note almost a year ago. The point was that God was speaking to me and giving me joy despite being in a place in life that was not naturally enjoyable.

Somewhere between then and now I have been really fighting for joy. I have even lost it in many ways. I have been wondering how to get it back. I want to be joyful. I want to be content. I want to be at peace. But I haven’t been.

Today, I was reviewing some Scripture that I have been reading through and trying to think over some things that had jumped out at me. One of the things I read was in James chapter 1. In the translation I have been reading it says, “When you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy.” This a pretty radical and even strange expectation.

So, why should I consider all trials of life (especially the one I am in now) nothing but joy? As I read on it gives the answer “because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance…so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.”

So here’s what I’m learning. The testing of my faith produces better faith, which means in the end, I will be closer to the one I put my faith in. That’s Jesus of course. But for this to motivate me to be joyful, I must value my relationship with Jesus more than anything. If my connection with God is not that important to me, I would not want to be joyful in trials. I wouldn’t care about that particular result. I must value Him even more than that which I have lost in this trial. Like a ministry. Like the status of being a real life missionary. Like our friends we left. Like Russia. Like financial security. And on and on.

I am learning that I have valued some of those things even more than Christ and my relationship with Him. I want those things back, or similar things, to replace them. Jesus has not been enough. I haven’t lost Him, but He has not consistently been supremely valuable to me.

I am praying my heart is changed by Him, so that He becomes that. I am learning that this is not going to be a simple choice to change. It will entail more than singing a praise song at church or just declaring this is what I want. It will entail wrestling deep in my soul to make my Savior all that I need. No matter what else I have or not. For me, that is the secret to unstealable joy.