We can find the quiet, peaceful joy in our lives in the midst of trouble. Deep within our souls God instills a confidence that He will never leave us. Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod, and Your staff, they comfort me (Ps 23:4). This confidence in God's care sustains us; when we face struggles we can take joy in the fact that God cares for us.
Sometimes blessings or circumstances in our lives are so extraordinary that we are overcome with excitement. This exuberant joy is evident in Ps 150:
Praise God in His sanctuary; praise Him in His mighty heavens.
Praise Him for His acts of power; praise Him for His surpassing greatness.
Praise Him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise Him with the harp and lyre,
praise Him with tambourine and dancing, praise Him with the strings and flute,
praise Him with the clash of cymbals, praise Him with the resounding cymbals.
This form of joy is so overwhelming that the evils of life seem to vanish before our eyes. As the sun chases away the darkness, so this joy takes away the sorrows. Life can be tough at times, and all we do when we pray is ask God for help in this and that, that He may deliver us from such and such an ailment, and that He may provide for our financial needs etc. We ask God for this and for that. But we spend little time actually praising God and experiencing the joy that should be part of our lives as christians. We have all been saved through the blood of Christ and His Holy Spirit renews us; isn't this enough cause for joy in our lives - joy that we should be expressing in our prayers?
Although in the previous chapter of the book we were told that in prayer there is room to express our sorrows and negative attitudes, our prayers should not remain that way. There are psalmists that lament before God, however their frank displays of negative feelings often lead them to a fresh discovery of joy. Psalm 59 begins with words of despair: See how they lie in wait for me! Fierce men conspire against me....(vs.3) however a different attitude emerges at the end: O my Strength, I sing praise to you; you, O God, are my fortress, my loving God (vs.17) By taking our troubles to God we can emerge from prayer having that quite, peaceful joy, a joy with which can then express in prayer.
When we find ourselves overwhelmed by joy, from whatever circumstances, we should come to God and share this joy with Him. Just as a child will seek their father to show him their delight (and the father also takes pleasure in the delights of his children), so our heavenly Father wants for us to share our joys and pleasures with Him. We can pray to God about His blessings (after all, the joy we experience is a direct blessing from Him), and in this way our exuberance will also filter into the other areas of our lives.
Once we start seeing the joy in life we begin to see the blessings rather than the grudges of everyday life. So often we receive tremendous blessings but fail to delight in them because of the problems that remain in our lives. We have a wonderful meal, but complain about doing the dishes. We have a lovely home, but moan about mowing the grass. We are blessed with healthy bodies by groan about the colour of our hair. It always seems we'er complaining about something. But we shouldn't; we have no need to complain. For most of us we have so much; we should be filled with thanksgiving and joy.
Joy in Christ; Joy with which can share and express to God in prayer.
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