Top 5 reasons to be insanely Joyful in Jesus.

In my last post I focused on the need for embracing hardship. I would like this to be the icing on the top of that rather dense cake. Or, perhaps, just a slither of the cake, loaded with the icing and sprinkles.

It's all very well talking about gritting your teeth and praising through the pain, but just what are these reasons for such praise? What can possibly merit such a choice?

Here they are. My top five reasons to be Joyful in Jesus. Just to get you started. For me these are reasons to rejoice, no matter what we are going through.




1. He always knows you


Psalm 139 tells us. He, The Alpha and Omega, knew us before we existed. His eyes saw our unformed bodys. He put us together in the womb. He created our inmost being. He knows our thoughts before we think them and our words before we say them. All of our days were written in his book before one of them came to be. This is, however, only a comfort if you understand how much he loves you. When you start to understand his love then his knowledge of us is a comfort. I cannot surprise God and I cannot disappoint him. Knowing exactly what I was he sent his son to die for me. Knowing exactly what I could become, he redeemed me, to the praise of his glorious grace.


2. He always has a plan


Consistently, in the New Testament, we are told to know what Gods will is (Rom 12:2, Eph 1:9). The joy is that in all things he has a bigger plan, to redeem and unite the world in Jesus. Prosperity nonsense will have you focus on the same old Jer 29:11 (Plans to prosper and not to harm you) and Rom 8;28. (God works all things together for good). A cursory look at these verses seems to serve the idea that God has a path of only blessing for us, but we see, if we read a little further, that not only is the prerequisite that we 'love God' but that he has predestined us to be conformed to the image of his Son. In other words there is a purpose in our suffering. To make us like Jesus. There is hope. And then there is heaven, where that work will be fully realised, and God will wipe every tear from our eyes, and there will be no more death, or sickness, or sorrow or pain and we will enjoy him forever.



3. He is always with you


And there, in any sufferings we face, as much as the pleasures, Jesus is with us, praying for us, interceding, advocating on our behalf, present by his spirit, holding us in his nail scarred hands. he said 'I am always with you, to the end' (Matt 28:20) and he has promised, 'never will I leave you, never will I forsake you'. He has sent his Holy Spirit, the comforter, to lead and guide us into all truth, to empower us, to resource us with all we need in him. We are never abandoned. Even if we are faithless, he remains faithful (2 Tim 2:13).



4. He always has your back


When the troubles come, and they will come (John 16:33) he has set up a divine support network  that is second to none.

• His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness (2 Peter 1:3).
• 1 Cor 12:26 Emphasizes that we, the church of Jesus, are one body. We suffer together, we succeed together. We support each other. We serve each other. We love each other. We have each others backs.
• You are part of the company of all the saints that ever lived, and they cheer you on from the side lines of heaven, to the end of your race. (Heb 11/12)
• For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; (Ps 91:11). Enough said.
• Along with the promise that he would never leave you, he promised that 'you will have power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you' (Acts 1:8). The power of the Spirit and the name of Jesus are an unbeatable combination. The tag team of spiritual warfare!

5. He always loves you.


In Jeremiah 31:3, we are told, 'I have loved you with an everlasting love'.  God 'so loved the world that he sent his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall have eternal life'. Jesus makes it clear how much he loves us when he says 'As the Father has loved me (And the father loves Jesus more than anything, his full delight is in him) , So I have loved you. Jesus tells us 'Greater love has no man than he lay down his life for his friends, and he proved it by loving us 'while we were still sinners'.  In love  (Eph 1:5) he predestined us, to be adopted as his rightful, fully inheriting children; forgiven, restored, sanctified and redeemed.

Paul tells us that Love never fails (1 Cor13) and that love remains forever. When all the voices are silent, and the world has passed away, Gods love will remain with his people. His love, his fear expelling, death defying love for you, will never pass away.




These are truths that I can be joyful about. But they are not definitive. The joys of the glory of God in Christ are so manifold that they can fill eternity. But I think we should get a head-start on heaven, don't you?

'Pure Joy'

The book of James tells us, to consider it 'pure joy' when we face trials of many kinds. Now that you are reading this, I feel it safer to tell you that the titular 'Pure Joy' that I am talking about is not of the frivolous, sun-kissed, frolicking on the beach variety. It is something altogether weightier than that. A joy that is present in pain. A joy that stands the testing of fires. A joy that rests on greater promises than fleeting earthly pleasures.

For  our momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison~ 2 Cor 4:17

 This, I have concluded, is never going to be a popular message. But the path of suffering is actually a rich, rich vein that runs around the body of Christ and directly into its arteries and is, essentially, at it's very heart.

When Paul talks of 'light and momentary troubles' it is clear that in a very immediate sense he is meaning anything but, 'light and momentary'. In the same passage he qualifies what he is going through,

• Hard pressed on every side
• Perplexed
• Persecuted
• Struck down

His list of his own sufferings for the Gospel's sake are well documented, even in my last blog.      Ship-wrecks, Imprisonment and stonings being just some of the things he faced.

And Paul, is not an idiot. Nor, I believe, is he a sado-masochist. I don't think he really meant to convey the idea that human suffering is fun. This is not about enjoying pain. This is about something far, far greater. For Paul, these things were 'Light and momentary' (I love his poetry) in the light of what is Heavy (with glory) and Eternal. Our redemption. Our inheritance. Our reward. Jesus himself.

Jesus went to the cross, scorning its shame, we are told, for the joy set before him. I can't think anything motivated him more than the prospect of sitting down at the right hand of his Dad in heaven, knowing what he would have achieved, knowing what pleasure he bought him and what salvation he bought to us. He knew that this suffering, in the light of that, was not worthy of comparison.

Paul says 'whatever is to my gain, (Absence of suffering included) I consider it a loss, compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ. I consider it crap, (The Greek word is actually stronger than that) that I may know him.'

And, in comparison to Paul's sufferings, most peoples troubles are 'Light and Momentary'. Mine certainly are.
  And so 'we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.' (v18)

So where does this joy come in?

In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed~1 Peter 1:6-7

The writer of Hebrews encourages us to 'endure hardship as a discipline'. The discipline, literally; a lesson, is something that the father allows his children to go through, so that by it they/we may be trained. If learned from, we are promised, it will produce a harvest of righteousness. And it is sometimes in the shaking that we know what will remain.  The discipline is to bring us to a better place, perhaps in a temporal sense, but certainly in an eternal sense. The joy we can find in our choice to praise him no matter what, can transcend the circumstances we face. We know that there is a purpose to this, whatever it may be, that we are being fitted for heaven.

Paul commands us in Philippians to 'rejoice'. Let me say it again. To rejoice is your choice. To take joy in God.



We are told, 'The joy of the LORD is your strength'.  So when we are weak, and struggling, we need to rejoice more than ever. Remember Paul and Silas in prison. Their praise party certainly seemed to cause a stir. I believe this is the key to Paul's sustenance. He never lost the eternal picture. What you see in front of you, is never all that is going on. You, above all people, believer, should have hope in affliction. And reason for praise.

And because Paul took this attitude, look what that did to his circumstances;

Hard pressed on every side = but not crushed

Perplexed                            = but not in despair

Persecuted                           = but not abandoned

Struck down                        = but not destroyed

We can always have hope. We can overcome in all things, because Jesus Christ will never abandon us.