How close are you to God, or how far away? I don’t mean the omnipresence of God, that God is close to you. “‘Do I not fill heaven and earth?’ declares the Lord” (Jeremiah 23:24). Not that, how close are your thoughts, your feelings, and your attitudes to God? “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Deuteronomy 6:4). How do you measure such a thing?
Joy is one way. We all have glad times, our team wins, we get a pay raise, our family gathers for Thanksgiving. Many things can and do make us happy or…important point…people and events also give us reasons to be sad, totally down. When sadness fills the depths of your being, what about this? “Rejoice in the Lord always” (Philippians 4:4). Always.
“Always in the Lord.” When I don’t have “the joy, joy, joy down in my heart,” as the children’s song says, I’m letting things distance me from God. “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11). “You by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necesssary, you have been grieved by various trials” (1 Peter 1:5-6). “In the Lord,” specifically Jesus. “Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad” (John 8:56). “Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory” (1 Peter 1:8). “Again I will say, rejoice…the Lord is at hand” (Philippians 4:4-5). It’s not just that the great God is omnipresent; it’s that God “is a very present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1). “Thus says the One who is high and lifted up…, ‘I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite’” (Isaiah 57:15).
Growing in faith means increasing in constant joy. I’ve got a long way to go! “May all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you!” (Psalm 70:4).
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