Continuing to work through Scriptures about joy, I was again surprised by the seriousness, the life and death, blessing or cursing weight that’s associated with the command to always be JOYFUL in God.
It’s near the beginning, or the end of the beginning as Moses is again telling the people that there are two paths. And he explains that the path to life is one paved with JOY.
47 Because you did not serve the LORD your God JOYFULLY AND GLADLY in the time of prosperity, 48 therefore in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and dire poverty, you will serve the enemies the LORD sends against you. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you. Deuteronomy 28
John Piper first introduced me to this passage.
Joy has always seemed like a nice ‘add on’ to this walk with Christ. Belief is first and then obedience and maybe some love. But, JOY? That’s a bonus point question. Not such a big deal but a nice cherry on top.
But, here, God does not allow the separation of joy and obedience and faith and love. It’s all in this passage and all woven together. To trust is to obey and to truly obey is to do so with JOY.
And so today, I’m asking for more grace..to believe, to obey, to love and to do it all with JOY and GLADNESS. After all, His path is the one that leads to LIFE, there is JOY in His presence, and at his right hand are PLEASURES FOREVERMORE. Lord, teach my heart that this is always true, even on a warm Monday afternoon in late August.
Related posts:
- Scared to Death of Dying ‘God don’t let me die and go to heaven, please...
- Jesus, Weed and Feed my Life If you’ve been following the guest posts from Kandy, you...
- The Only ‘What If’ Worth Asking You’d think full hands should be full of praise and...
- When You Need to Be Strong Though sandwiched between two girls, my boy is still determined...
- But I Don’t Want to be Like Jesus Inspired by the book, Gospel Powered Parenting (more to come...
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
