Manifesto of Joy
Job stress, family issues, cracks in the budget, and a mower that breaks. Drop by drop, the leak begins. A rivulet forms, and then a river, rushing, raging, sweeping away the last protective stone. Defeat and discouragement litter the banks of my heart in a landscape the color of despair.
There went my joy, and with it went the strength, the hope, the color and the laughter for which I was made.
“Joy,” said C. S. Lewis, “is the serious business of Heaven.” Serious? Business? I’d better listen up.
The prophet Nehemiah said it first, and I turned to it once more this morning: “The joy of the Lord is your strength.” If this is true and if Lewis is right, then keeping joy is serious business. Finding it is crucial, and hanging on to it is of paramount importance.
Here, then, is my Manifesto of Joy, my way of building, block by block, a protective dam holding in that most precious commodity. It is offered up in loving obedience and in sheer desperation for more of Him.
1. Knowing that His joy is in all actuality my source of strength, I must pursue it with my whole heart. (Neh. 8:10)
2. Knowing that in His presence is fullness of joy, I will linger there, tarry with Him; not doing, not rushing, just being. (Ps. 16:11)
3. Knowing that He is my strength and my trust is in Him, I will draw living water from the wells of salvation with joy. (Isa. 12:3)
4. Knowing that those who sow in tears shall reap in joy, I give thanks that the tears that water fertile soil shall produce a harvest sweet. (Ps. 126:5)
5. Knowing that as I abide in the Vine and He abides in me, His joy, flowing, is the life force from which springs abundant fruit and an ever-growing joy. (John 15)
6. Knowing that these light and momentary troubles (see above) are achieving an eternal weight of glory, I shall greatly rejoice. Seeing my trials through the lens of eternity fosters a joyful heart. (II Cor. 4:17, I Pet. 1:6)
7. Knowing that Father God rejoices, singing with over me with joy songs that only my heart can hear, protects me from despair and feelings of insecurity. (Zeph. 3:17)
8. Knowing that praise is comely and giving thanks is redemptive, I will eat my daily bread with joy, giving thanks for even the smallest grace from His hand. (Eccl. 9:1)
9. Knowing that complaining is contagious, I will ask for an ordained tongue that will bring life and not death to others. (Prov. 18:21)
10. “Blessed are the people that know the joyful sound. They shall walk in the light of Thy presence (Ps. 89:15).” The girl that knows the joyful sound of His voice, blessed is she, and she shall walk in the light of His presence.
These are the things I know. May He work it out ever more and more within me.
Praying joy for you today,
Rhonda