Finding Joy in God

Our youth group at Coast has been studying how to grow in Godliness this year. This month, the topic was on joy. Our lay youth pastor, Dan Rupprecht, shared with them truths from God's word on finding true joy. These are some of the thoughts he shared with them. I hope this benefits them and you as much as it has me.

We all want joy. In fact, the desire of everyone is to find joy (Ecclesiastes 8:15). We look for it everywhere, but most of the time we are looking in the wrong places and at the wrong things. This "cheap" joy, as Dan put it, is everywhere, but it never lasts, and only leads to death. Our sinful hearts cheapen and diminish even the joy we seek from the right source, God.

God designed mankind to find our satisfaction (joy) in Him. It is God who is the source of all true pleasure. Seeking pleasure is not a sin. Seeking pleasure in everything else apart from God is. God tells us in his Word that is idolatry.

Real joy comes only from God through Christ Jesus. Christ came as the ultimate demonstration of God's steadfast love. This manifestation of His lovingkindness is to make us glad and rejoice now, and one day, completely in God's presence (Psalms 90:14).

Most of the time we deceive ourselves into thinking that we know better how to find joy for ourselves than God does. This is just not true. God, through Jesus, wants us to be happy a million times more than we do. In John 15:11 He tells us that He wants us to be full of His joy. Meditate on that thought for a while. Jesus wants us to have His joy in us, and for that joy to be full, complete; that we would be completely filled with His joy. (Can I get an amen, or Hallelujah?)

Our joy will never be perfect while we are here on this earth. It is limited in this life by sin, but it can be expanded through obedient faith. Real joy is also not determined by our immediate circumstances, but by the reality of God and all that He promises us in Christ. Even the reproach of Christ in our lives is greater riches than the treasures of the world (Hebrews 11:25-26; 12:2).

He ended with a list of 10 ways to expand your joy in God. I will leave you with these.

1. Confess your sin of looking to everything but God for happiness (Psalm. 32:3-11)
   
2. Look to Christ for all that you truly need (John. 16:24)
   
3. Pray for joyful obedience (Psalm. 51:12; 61:2)
   
4. Kill the two-headed pride monster: boasting and self-pity (1 Cor. 1:26-29; Mt. 5:11-12)
   
5. Get passionate about your obedience to God and service to others (Romans 12:9-15)
   
6. Study to become an expert about what God has promised you (2 Peter 1:4, 10-11)
   
7. Take inventory of your circumstances and express thanks to God (Habakkuk 3:17-18)
   
8. Take the long-range view of life (1 Peter 1:6-9)
   
9. Sing about the lovingkindness of God (Psalm. 90:14)
   
10. Do hard things and gladly accept the outcome (James.1:2-4)