It wasn’t even today’s reading. I peeked. Well actually, it was from last week. But in this book of famous quotes by one person in particular, I read this:
“God is joy. Joy is prayer. Joy is a sign of generosity. When you are full of joy, you move faster and you want to go about doing good to everyone. Joy is a sign of union with God–of God’s presence.“
It really hit me. God is joy.
What do we think of when we think of God. Is He all serious? Ready to judge? Gets us in the gate but doesn’t have much to do with us after that?
We live oftentimes with others based on how we think God is like with us.
But think about it for a minute. Truly a joyful person. We love to be around them. They lift us hope. And what’s more?
The nature of joy is inclusion.
It’s true. Joyful people include others around them.
It doesn’t mean include sin and be a party to that. Jesus was clear. Repent and leave your life of sin.
But it does mean he includes us. In heaven, it is a place of celebration and food and dancing and…joy! Yes, there are times of great glory and honor and worship. But there’s also joy and togetherness and fun and happiness. Because these flow from God’s very nature.
Compare that to a religious God. A “religious” God, as in a rules based God, is about judgment and following laws. Religion in its ugliest sense excludes people. It includes those who are not good enough and don’t have it all together.
But Jesus?
He hung out with sinners. They were drawn to him. He loved them and he called them repent and turn from their sins. It was both. The good news is that no matter what they did, they could find redemption and reconciliation through him. That was good news.
From the very beginning, the good news of Jesus is joy-based.
And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. (Luke 2:10).
So I want to do this. I want to focus on the joy of the Lord. Joy is of God. God is joy. And I want to reflect more of Him to a world that is parched for His joy.
