Joy of the Lord is key in troubled times

A rich and prosperous life is not making us any happier

The trouble with joy is that often we look for it in the wrong places.  By and large, we look for joy in our circumstances such as relationships, finances, material things, and things just generally going well in our life.  And that is understandable—we all like to be blessed and to be prosperous in what we do and how we live.  In Australia, we live in one of the most prosperous nations on earth yet I don’t think that fact is making our life any happier. As we move towards Christ returning and the dreaded end-times it doesn’t seem to appear to necessarily be a joyful or happy time.  In fact, the Bible mentions that it will be the time of Jacob’s trouble, a terrible time for the earth, and a time of much persecution and hardship, environmentally, politically, financially and health-wise.  It doesn’t sound like a period that we would be looking forward to at all.  So what is the key to enduring to the end?  What is the key to not just surviving till Christ comes back but in fact thriving?

Joy gives the strength to endure

The key, I believe, comes with the command from Paul to rejoice in the Lord.¹  Strength and endurance actually come from having “joy”.  Nehemiah says, “The joy of the Lord is your strength.”²  I was having a coffee and conversation with a local pastor and he was telling me how he had been the pastor of his particular church for over 20 years.  Without realising the wisdom of my own words I said to him that he must have enjoyed his time as Senior Pastor if he had lasted so long.  And really that is the key!  It is the key to enduring and lasting through hard times.  As Nehemiah says, we need to understand the concept that the “joy of the Lord” is the key to not only surviving but thriving in hard and trying times.  Joy actually gives us the strength to endure.  And I was thinking this morning in our morning devotions with Cathi that for any relationship to last for a long time whether it be marriage or in our relationship with God or a friendship, there must be joy for it to last.  If there is no joy in your marriage then eventually it will lead to a separation and maybe even divorce.  Joy gives us strength in our marriages, strength in our relationships, especially with God.  How is your joy today?  We need to develop joy in our lives and be thankful for what God is doing in our lives even if circumstances are not going our way.  Maybe there is no building up going on in our lives at the moment.  It may just be that God is working to dig down and establish spiritual foundations in our lives before we will see that upward movement in ministry and blessing in our lives.  Foundations are important.

Comfort in the fact that God is in control

So how does this relate to what we will go through towards the end of this era?  Obviously, God is wanting us to be resilient and enduring as we see more and more calamities in the world occurring.  The Coronavirus, bushfires, floods are just the beginning.  All these things and more will come about as we move closer so the way to handle these outward circumstances is to develop our Christian joy knowing that God is in control of everything, even the environment.  A little child like in the picture above does not worry too much in life but they know how to laugh and play and rest in the knowledge that mum and dad are there to help and protect them.  They trust them that they are in control.  And it is the same for us too with an all-powerful, sovereign God.  There is comfort knowing that very soon God will restore the environment and everything in it over a period of 1000 years during the millennial kingdom.  In the meantime I need to not worry but to find joy in all things, that is my strength.  And when the time comes I know that God will show me the way where to hide under His wings in a protected and safe place while the troubles of the earth pass over for only 1290 days.³