Joy: Isaiah 65:18

But be glad and rejoice forever
    in what I will create,
for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight
    and its people a joy.

Isaiah 65:18

If you’re anything like me, you might struggle with the idea that you’re allowed to enjoy things. We sometimes have this idea that Christians should have it all together and that anything too fun isn’t holy enough or a distraction.

It can be easy to think that we should be living a limited life which is low on delight.

I’m want to throw a few of the things that I’ve been learning out there to challenge that.

1. Our God is a generous and abundant God. When He fed the five thousand (Matthew 14:13-21), there were basketfuls left over. When He changed water into wine (John 2:1-11), the wine was the best wine at the wedding. God is a master craftsman who doesn’t hold back; just look at creation! He created a variety of different flavours and colors. He created things that don’t just work but work well and are beautiful.
2. “Those who follow Jesus do not have to live sad, austere and sour lives. In fact the opposite is true. Christ-followers experience the highest form of pleasure, laugh with depth and enjoy all of the goodness life has to offer… They trust in a good and beautiful God who has come not to rob them of joy but to bring them real and lasting joy, the kind found when moderation and boundaries are applied.” This quote is from James Bryan Smith, author of the Apprentice series (highly recommended). He talks about the fact that what we might see as rules put in place to spoil our enjoyment of life are actually a roadmap to living life at its best and fullest. God doesn’t give us guidelines because he likes to spoil peoples’ fun; they are guidelines to living a more deeply enjoyable and fulfilling life.
3. A friend of mind once quoted Foster the People’s song ‘Waste’ in a sermon. The lyrics (unintentionally) represent God’s heart toward us.
   “And every day that you want to waste, you can
   And every day that you want to wake up, you can…
   I’ll help you see it through ’cause I just really want to be with you.”
   The awesome thing is that God wants to waste time with us. We don’t have to be doing anything productive. We don’t have to be doing anything impressive. He just enjoys spending time with us because He loves us. And he wants us to just enjoy spending time with him.

Living a life of joy isn’t just important because God loves us and wants us to have joy, it’s important in the way we represent Him to other people.

How can we give others a taste of God and all he has to offer if we are living joyless lives?

That’s not to say that we need to paste on a smile and pretend everything is fine when it’s not (vulnerability is great!). And it’s not to say that we should expect everything to go right in our lives. It is to say that we have freedom to enjoy what life has to offer (with moderation and boundaries applied).

Immanuel, one of the names of Jesus, means God-with-us.

I think God-with-us is the crazy, wonderful reality of God loving us so much that He became human in Jesus and it’s also God-with-us in the small stuff. It’s God-who-wants-to-waste-time-with-us, God-who-wants-to-enjoy-life-with-us and it’s Jesus coming for us.

Let’s praise him and ask him for joy.

Let’s accept his invitation and have fun with him.