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As we enter July, the United States is preparing to mark its 250th anniversary as an independent republic. Despite the divisions among us, we have much to celebrate. May we come to Him in deep thanksgiving for the blessings He has bestowed upon us….
As we celebrate America’s birthday, I think it presents us with a reminder that it is important to go beyond giving thanks to the Lord for His blessings. It is also crucial to remember that heaven is eternal and the United States is not. We do not want to be so distracted with temporal reality that we lose focus on the eternal.
The Declaration of Independence and our Constitution are excellent political documents. But they are not the Bible! A particularly good example of the difference is found in the beginning of the second paragraph of the Declaration: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by the Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. The pursuit of happiness may be a fundamental political freedom, but it is not the Lord’s goal for us.
In my New American Standard Bible, “happiness” appears a handful to times. Joy, on the other hand, repeated often in both the Old and New Testaments. While happiness can be promoted by a positive attitude, it is to a significant degree dependent on our circumstances. The Lord wants us to know His joy that is independent of circumstances. As Jesus was speaking with His disciples in the Upper Room just before His crucifixion, He warned them that their circumstances in the world would include hatred, stumbling blocks, and tribulation. But He also explained that these things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.
How do we find and experience joy even in the midst of challenging and difficult circumstances? In His Upper Room Discourse, Jesus also instructed His disciples to abide in Him as the true vine, that we would bear fruit in Him. He also promised the indwelling Holy Spirit. And then the Apostle Paul, in his epistle to the Galatians, taught that joy is a fruit of that indwelling Holy Spirit. And so we know that as we abide in Christ, He enables us to bear the fruit of joy by the work of the indwelling Holy Spirit despite challenging and troubling circumstances. And this joy, independent of circumstances, represents a tremendous witness to an unbelieving, hurting world.
Happiness is nice! I love being comfortable and having an easy time of things. But I do not want to pursue happiness as a counterfeit of joy. And sometimes I need encouragement to resist the temptation to serve myself to generate the comfortable circumstances that promise happiness. May we, like the disciples who sat and listened to our Lord’s final words, have our hearts and minds fixed on our Lord, that we would abide in Him and bear His fruit of joy as a blessing for all concerned.
It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak.
We are halfhearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies
in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the
sea. We are far too easily pleased.
C.S. Lewis
The Weight of Glory
