Church, I am encouraged in the word of God each time I see the word Joy, aren’t you?

Well, now you might saying to yourself, “Well, duh., that’s a no brainer”. I would absolutely agree with you. The brain has nothing to do with. It is absolutely an issue of the heart.

See, the world has morphed our hearts to think that if we do this and this and this, then we can have happiness; even live ‘happily ever after’. It makes me think about when Israel ‘told’ Aaron to “Up, make us gods who shall go before us…” (Exodus 32:1). These were God’s people, holy and set apart for Him. Well, man being man, they impatiently requested instant ‘happiness’. It’s like they were saying ‘Aaron! Look, you’re our leader. You’re supposed to keep us happy, right? Well, do your job and make us something that we can instantly get excited about. Happy, happy, happy’.

Problem is, Aaron listened to them. Turns out, when you listen to the world instead of God, it puts God in a balancing act between patience and wrath. Why would giving the people what they want be out of the will of God? Well, at some point our wants match up with our needs, but at this particular moment, the wants of the people were not godly. See, Israel was seeking happiness, not holiness. The job of the leaders in the church, the job of a husband or a wife, and the purpose of Jesus Christ dying on the cross was to slowly, and sometimes painfully, mold us into holy worshipers; set apart and in the image of Christ Jesus.

So this idea that holiness is our pursuit, and not happiness, brings me full circle to my first point. The word joy in the bible is the idea that we are not only growing closer to Jesus every day, but we are being made more and more like Him (holiness) everyday. Happiness is situational while joy is eternally SOLID! Joy is satisfaction in our savior! I’ll leave you with John Piper’s most famous quote”

“God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him”

It’s about the pursuit of holiness, which is the pursuit of God, which is worship.