I remember a tough day in the early nineties when our kids were small. My wife had just found a nest of mice in her sock drawer. We had a broken dryer. I had some high-priority work issues, along with the normal challenges of parenting four children.
After eliminating the mice, I was hanging up our wet towels and blue jeans on the clothesline, trying to plan how to fix all the brokenness.
Then it hit me, like an apple plopping on Isaac Newton’s head.
The temporal nature of the issues with the mice, the dryer, and my work problems were less important than how my wife and I weathered the stress these difficulties had on our relationship.
She was in acute anxiety over finding rodents in our room. She should be my focus, not trying to fix things.
Our relationship, and how I loved her through the difficulties, was much more important than solving the problems.
When I finished hanging up the clothes, I sat down to unpack what seemed to be a huge paradigm shift in my thinking.
Shouldn’t relationships and loving be my focus?
I think ladies think more this way than we men.
Perhaps the duties and the problems were more like opportunities to love and not the main thing.
I remembered Jesus’ answer to the Pharisees, as found in Matthew 22:36-40: “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”
Then I thought of the Ten Commandments and how they are all about loving God and loving others.
Since then, though I’ve forgotten the focus for sizeable chunks of time, I’ve been intentional about trying to have a love-first mindset.
I will testify that when this focus is operating as it should, I have unexplainable joy, like Jesus.
The Joy of Jesus
But of the Son He says,
“Your throne, O God, is forever and ever,
And the righteous scepter is the scepter of His kingdom.
You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness;
Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You
With the oil of gladness above Your companions” (Hebrew 1:8-9).
God anointed Jesus with the oil of gladness (exultation and extreme joy).
As we grow in our knowledge of God being our Highest Joy, we see how Jesus’ glad heart strengthened Him and gave Him courage. And we see how we’re fueled by the nearness of Jesus and His joy.
What can we learn about His Joy and how it flows from how we love?
The Joy of Relationships
Relating – a connection between.
Out of the depths of love within the Trinity, man was created and given the breath of life. God created us for fellowship and relationship. And as amazing as it seems, God delights in our connection with Him.
In fact, Zephaniah writes that our connection with Him causes the Lord to rejoice with shouts of joy. [1] We actually bring joy to God.
This helps bring clarity to the following verses in Hebrews: Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:1-2)
Knowing His death on our behalf would re-establish our broken relationships with God because of our sins, gave Jesus joy which fueled His endurance on the cross.
Consider Jesus’ words to His disciples the night before He went to the cross: If you keep My commandments, you will remain in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and remain in His love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you (John 15:10-12)
His command – love others as He’s loved us.
The outcome – we’ll remain in His Love and experience His complete Joy.
It may seem strange from an earthly perspective, but experiencing the complete Joy of Jesus has everything to do with our sacrificial love.
Love and Joy closely connect. They appear together at the beginning of Paul’s list of the fruit of the Spirit. [2]
True, lasting joy doesn’t spring from earthly happenings, but from the depth of love in our relationships.
Prayer
Lord, You’ve awakened me to the tight connection between love and joy. Thank You.
Please stop me quickly when I forget and try once again to derive my feelings of being okay from my circumstances.
Please keep my heart in a love-first mode, realizing all along that any loving I do must come from You. I pray the people I love would recognize You in every word and deed directed by You.
Amen.
Reflection
Joy marked Jesus’ life.
As mentioned in the verses above, Jesus gave His disciples the secret to staying in His great Love and experiencing His complete Joy – loving others as He’s loved us – sacrificially.
Paul also experienced the joy of sacrificial love. He equated joy with being poured out like a drink offering.
But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you all. You too, I urge you, rejoice in the same way and share your joy with me (Philippians 2:17-18).
Paul called the people of Thessalonica his glory and joy: For who is our hope or joy or crown of exultation? Is it not even you, in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming? For you are our glory and joy (I Thessalonians 2:19-20).
He also commands us to be full of joy in our worship of the Lord.
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! (Philippians 4:4).
Joy, which satisfies our longing hearts, doesn’t come from fighting for ourselves. In fact, it’s just the opposite. Our joy comes directly from how we love.
[1] Zephaniah 3:17
[2] Galatians 5:22-23
Note: Unless otherwise noted, all referenced Scripture is from the NASB 1995 version of the Bible. The cover picture was generated by AI.
Other posts in our Everlasting Way Series:
Learning How to Overcome Emotional Numbness
Are we More Like Batman or Spider-Man
Transforming Awareness: The Power of God’s Love
Joy in the Journey is about the gladness of God’s nearness in the midst of life’s adventures.
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Nonfiction books by the Author:
This collection of devotionals chronicles a heartfelt journey from a life of striving and self-reliance to one of growing surrender and trust in God.
Through personal stories of family struggles, cancer, grief, and unexpected trials, the devotions show that true, unshakeable joy comes not from perfect circumstances, but from the constant, loving presence of Jesus Christ.
It’s an invitation to learn to let go of our burdens and find growing peace in God’s greater story.
Because joy is rooted in God and is eternal, it doesn’t ebb and flow with the waves of circumstances. In fact, as we grow in our understanding of joy, we can even experience it more acutely when life is hard. Why? Because God uses trials to conform us into the image of Christ. With this awareness, which gives us glimpses of God’s greater purposes, we rejoice because of His masterful work to free us from needing anything but Him.
For these reasons, and many others, joy in the Lord is commanded in scripture. It’s not just a good idea, it’s vital to our journey as human beings. Rhythms of Joy
Novels by the Author:
What happens when a professor figures out how to send messages to his younger self to try and avoid the suicide of his best friend? Did he change more than he bargained for? Beyond Time
By finding two undelivered letters in an old shack deep in the woods, Cassie and Daniel unknowingly set off a series of events which uncovers a plot to wipe out a whole family. Hope Remains
Please Check out the Cola City Podcast . Discussions that impact the vision of reaching every man, woman, and child in a city.