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Who is God? (5) The God of Joy ...

Monday, June 8, 2009. What are reasons or occasions when we are full of joy? Often we feel joy when we get something. Children are joyful at Christmas when they get a load of presents. Adults are full of joy when they get a promotion, whey the receive money, whey they win the lottery. As businessmen we are glad when some contracts are signed, when we receive special things. Joy is usually linked to success or income, to getting something special.

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There is also another joy of friendship and companionship, of partnership and love. Joy can come from conversations with a good friend. Joy can arise when we fall in love. Joy can be there when we spend time with our family, with husband, wife and with children. There can be a lot of joy when we do sports or other activities. Being in a team can create great joy. There is also the joy of a sunny day, of being in the nature, at the sea or in the mountains. Hiking can be joy, or swimming, or being in a beautiful place. There is the joy of travel, when you visit remote places, going through China, through Japan, through Brazil or Canada (every country on this planet has its own beauty!).

It is interesting that often we cannot realize the joy. We are in the middle of some struggle. We did not get the special thing we were looking for. There are 10 companies bidding for the contract, but only one will get it. There are 20 people in a department, only two will be promoted. We see the beauty of the world around us - yet it does not generate the joy in us which is should. We are giving a fantastic body, but we do not feel any joy, but anger and frustration. We have a wonderful partner, but do not completely convert this into the joy it includes. We are somehow caught in some state of non-joy. We are bound by the circumstances. This seems to be a typical phenomen in our world.

However: God is the God of joy. Joy is a regular topic of the New Testament. Joy is recorded again and again in many events. People are filled with joy when they meet God, when God intrudes their lifes with his activity. In John 15 Jesus says “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.” It is joy which God wants us to experience. A life in faith is a life which will ultimately bring joy - more joy than we can imagine.

What do we do if the circumstances are not promoting joy? What if we are weighed down by some trouble? There are two options: first, we can wait for the circumstances to change. It is a classical approach: pray for God's help. When the help comes the joy is back since then we rejoice in his gifts and support. But there is another approach. Let the circumstances be as they are. But he wants to free our bonds in another way. He is not changing the pressure, but he is changing our relation to it. He wants to open our mind and our heart for him, for the beauties he has created and for the things he has provided for us. There is so much joy about all these things - can we realize it in the middle of our trouble? There is a joy which is beyond the presents, beyond a “good life”, beyond success. There is the joy of the community of his people throughout the ages. There is the joy of the companionship of those who knew the Lord, his justice and his unbelievable fantastic character. If we start to understand this joy, we are on a way to understand more about Jesus. [R.W.E.P., jesusnetwork.eu]

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