Marty and I met a family this week who live in a storage building. No, this is not due to Hurricane Helene. This is their “normal” and they simply needed kerosene to heat their humble home in the below freezing temperatures that we’re experiencing in our area right now.
After 24 years of ministry in affluent suburban areas, these moments still get to me. Moments when I expect to be met with defeat on the faces of those before me, yet all I see are smiles… and joy. It lifts my heart in a way that I can’t explain.
We came to minister to their needs, but there in front of that storage shed that they call home, standing in ice and mud, we fellowshipped with a family that ministered to me.
We’ve been here for almost four years and I’m still surprised by these moments. I’m not sure why. Perhaps because I lived in an area of very little need for so long that true joy and contentment in the Lord, a joy that is ever present regardless of one’s earthly circumstances, wasn’t something I witnessed as much as I do here in the foothills of North Carolina. And it’s not because the core issues people face here are all that different, they’re just refreshingly real. Most people in this area don’t have the money to dress up their lives and make the problems they’re facing in this messy, fallen world look pretty. There is little pretense, but there is one thing I see a lot — JOY. True joy.
Psalm 5:11 says, “Let all those rejoice who put their trust in You; Let them ever shout for joy, because You defend them; Let those also who love Your name be joyful in You.”
I believe true joy is contagious and that God designed it this way for a reason, because when we see true joy in someone, it makes us want it too. The world has done a pretty good job emulating counterfeit joy, but the things of this world which we place our trust in, inevitably deteriorate and disappoint. God has given us the freedom to seek joy in the things of this world, but it is a never ending and futile search.
Thankfully we can rejoice when we put our trust in the Lord and forever shout for joy — because He is the One who brings that true joy into our heart, mind and soul. When we grow in our knowledge of who He is that joy grows, because we know that He will never fail us. We understand that He will never turn His back on us. His warranty never expires and His love never fades. He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. He becomes our rock and our strength and we are able to place our hope in Him because He is our Savior and defender. We can shout for joy every morning, every moment of the day, because in the midst of any problem we face, we know that He is all we need.
When we love Jesus, there is true joy — a joy that emulates from the depth of our soul. A soul secure in the love and promises of our Savior. It is a contagious joy, because it doesn’t come and go in the minutia of our day, dependent upon our circumstances. It is there, steady and true, because we know that no matter what we face, our God goes before us and He will never leave us.
Jesus is our source of true joy, unhindered.
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