Joy

Joy is restful, whole and a deep sigh.  It’s like jumping into a deep lake and the water engulfs you all over.  Joy fills our whole being and not just our belly.  True joy comes from the Lord.  Joy gives us confidence knowing He will always be with us and never forsake us.  Joy gives us serenity knowing that God will always have our back if we keep moving forward towards Him, continuously praying and calling out to Jesus who deserves all of our faith.  Joy requires us to share quite moments with Him to refresh our cup and rest in the wisdom that He that provides all things and is working towards our greatest good, even when we do not understand and all logic is confounded.  The joy of the Lord is our strength because it is our remembrance that we already have the victory over that which seeks to destroy us.  Joy in the wisdom that God will avenge the righteous from the ungodly’s wickedness so that we, ourselves, can be freed from an angry and bitter heart.  Joy in the wisdom that God will not forget His faithful, even amidst His wrath, for those that call out to Him because He is slow to anger and desires no one to be lost.  Joy of the Lord is grateful to have a Lord who sees all, knows all and never sleeps.  Joy is rejoicing in the knowledge of who the Lord which increases our faith in Him through the endurance of walking through our trials of our lives.  But how do we come to this place of joy?

Joy comes after making peace with the Lord.  It is through the reconciliation that we, in our sinful nature, unworthy of a relationship with God are reconciled when we call out to Him for forgiveness and accept His position as Lord of our lives.  Through the experience of God’s faithfulness and the renewed confidence in our life, our faith in Jesus Christ grows to the point we know He IS who He says He is.  It allows us to confidently look forward to the day we will share in eternal life in gratitude for His sacrifice.  Romans 5:1-11 NLT says (emphasis added):

Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by FAITH, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us.  Because of our FAITH, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory. 

We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance.  And endurance develops strength of character [we become transformed], and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.  And this hope will NOT lead to disappointment.  For we know how dearly God loves us, because He has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with HIS love.

Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good.  But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.  And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, He will certainly save us from God’s condemnation.  For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his son while were still His enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of His Son.

Now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God. 

Jesus prayed this before dying for us, “I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you.  Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that we may be ONE as we are one.  While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me.  None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.  ‘I am coming to you know, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.’” John 17:11-13

Psalm 92:4 says, "For you make me glad by your deeds, LORD; I sing for joy at what your hands have done."  

Psalm 19:8 says, "The precepts of the LORD are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the LORD are radiant, giving light to the eyes."

Psalm 28:7 says, "The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise him."

To know and walk with the Lord is true joy!

Ash

In Genesis 3:19 the Lord God says, "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." You see back in Genesis 2:7, "And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul."


The Lord God personally created Adam out of dust and he reminds him that although he personally created out of the dust of the ground, he is mortal and will return back to being dust. I picture the proverbial Mom warning her child with "I brought you into this world, I will take you out." with no intention of actually doing so.

Ash Wednesday is a special day that marks the beginning of Lent. Why Ashes? For one, the marks on our forehead with a cross is to physically remind us that we have been called by God and to repent and humble ourselves before a Holy God. Repeatedly throughout the Bible are references to ashes and sackcloth to humble oneself to God.

When speaking with the Lord, Abraham reminded him he was nothing but dust and ashes. "Then Abraham spoke up again: “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes, 28 what if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five people?” “If I find forty-five there,” he said, “I will not destroy it.” Genesis 18:27-28 And because he humbled himself, the Lord granted Abraham's desire.

In Esther 4:1-4, Mordecai and all the Jews "put on sackcloth with ashes" and grieved. They cried out to the Lord and the Lord delivered the Jews from the hands of a man who King Xeres put in charge and this man's whole drive in life was to crush the Jews out of existence. When we humble ourselves before the Lord, He hears our cries.

Job, when speaking to his friends and family when he became afflicted reminded them in 13:12 "Your remembrances are like unto ashes, your bodies to bodies of clay." And then when Job speaks to the Lord directly in 42:6, Job again humbles himself to the Lord: "Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes."

In Daniel 9:3, Daniel prayed "And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes".

Jesus gives this stern warning to the unrepentant in both Matthew 11:21 and Luke 10:13, "Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon, which have been done in you, they had a great while ago repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes."

Finally, in 2 Peter 2:6 another warning is given to these that remain unrepentant and do not humble themselves to the Lord, "And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly"

This Ash Wednesday, more than giving up something, I pray that you give into the Lord, humbling yourself before him by repenting and relinquishing your ungodly ways, seeking the Lord's strength to overcome that which has an ungodly hold upon you through this Lenten season.