Christianity is meant to be a life of tremendous and abiding joy in God. Why? Because God is infinitely delightful, boundlessly enjoyable, infinitely pleasant, infinitely lovely, infinitely satisfying. Do you know the joy the Psalmist describes in Psalm 43:4? "I will go to the altar of God my exceeding joy."
Is it no wonder why Jonathan Edwards said,
“The enjoyment of God is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied. To go to heaven, fully to enjoy God, is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here. Fathers and mothers, husbands, wives, or children, or the company of earthly friends, are but shadows; but the enjoyment of God is the substance. These are but scattered beams, but God is the sun. These are but streams. But God is the fountain. These are but drops, but God is the ocean…Why should we labor for, or set our hearts on anything else, but that which is our proper end, and true happiness.”
Oh Christian, God wants us to see Him, to understand Him, and know Him, in order that you might supremely enjoy Him and be satisfied with Him, and truly happy in Him. The great end of all bible study, all teaching, all preaching, is a mind and heart for God that bubbles forth with a life of joy. That is why the Westminster Confession writes: “The chief end of man is to know God and enjoy Him forever.” Therefore, we should be passionate and diligent about being happy in God!
Jonathan Edwards challenges us “to be endeavoring by all possible ways to inflame their desires and to obtain more spiritual pleasures. . . . Our hungerings and thirstings after God and Jesus Christ and after holiness can't be too great for the value of these things, for they are things of infinite value.”
The implications every day of your life is that God’s glory hangs on our being happy in Him. George Mueller exhorts and instructs us, “above all things see to it that your souls are happy in the Lord. Other things may press upon you, the Lord's work may even have urgent claims upon your attention, but I deliberately repeat, it is of supreme and paramount importance that you should seek above all things to have your souls truly happy in God Himself! Day by day seek to make this the most important business of your life… the secret of all true effectual service is joy in God….But in what way shall we attain to this settled happiness of soul? How shall we learn to enjoy God? How shall we obtain such an all-sufficient soul-satisfying portion in him as shall enable us to let go the things of this world as vain and worthless in comparison? I answer; this happiness is to be obtained through the study of the Holy Scriptures. God has therein revealed Him self unto us in the face of Jesus Christ. In the Scriptures, by the power of the Holy Ghost, He makes Himself known unto our souls. . . . [Therefore] The very earliest portion of the day we can command should be devoted to the meditation on Scriptures. Our souls should feed upon the Word. . . . This intimate experimental acquaintance with Him will make us truly happy. Nothing else will.”
When you are in church, I pray that your pastor will raise your affections and joy with the truth of God. So that as Peter says, “Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory.”(1 Peter 1:8). So that like Paul you can say "I am sorrowful, yet always rejoicing." (2 Corinthians 6:10).
The ultimate battle in your life is: Are you happy in God? Many of us have not been used to finding our joy in God so it does not come easy. That is why we must pray, seek, and begin to go hard after joy. “Resolved, to endeavor to obtain for myself as much happiness, in the other world, as I possibly can, with all the power; might, vigor, and vehemence, yea violence, I am capable of, or can bring myself to exert, in any way that can be thought of.” (Jonathan Edwards) Will God be your exceeding joy?
Going hard after joy, Pastor Bill
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