Joy To The World, The Lord is Come!

One of the most favorite Christmas hymns, other than Silent Night, is Joy To The World. The very first line announces a profound truth.  Joy to the world, the Lord is come.!!  The Lord, who “rules with truth and grace” and wonders of his love” brings joy to earth.  

That is, brings a phenomenon, an epiphany, of something exceptionally good.  Something that will make a huge difference upon the earth.

Peace and Joy live side by side!

Both are basically impossible to describe!

God is the source both peace and joy.  It is a feeling of calm, contentment and a since that all is right.  Joy is often brief.  Fleeting!  Momentary!  Gone but not forgotten!  Sometimes the moment last for a little while before it begins to fad.

Try this one on:  In the ancient Hebrew joy denotes “a gracious disposition that finds expression in a gracious action.”  God is the source of this action!  Action that: “expresses spontaneous goodness!  God’s grace converted into acts.”

Reflect on that a minute!

What do you hear?

There are some passages from John that refer to this phenomenon of joy. 

8 My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples. 9 As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. 11 I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.(Jn. 15:8-11)

There is a participation involved in this God-joy!

24 Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.(Jn. 16;24)

God prompts something in us to be!  To be, to feel, to act, and to think opposite of the expectation of the world.  When we “abide in” — submit to — Jesus’ love; there is something that allows us to respond in away that, “expresses spontaneous goodness.”  

Or as I suggested yesterday: Kindness!

When we act with spontaneous goodness something inside of us changes.  We take pleasure in the tiniest thing.  We begin to see others with distinctive eyes.  Eyes that are new, and I’ll say, clearer.  Maybe our judgment is less critical.  More loving!  When we grow, with God’s joy prompting us, life begins to take on a less tense emotional track.  Not so many “have toos” and more “get toos.”   

Jesus came so that we might learn to live with faith in His truth.  His way!  And when we do, we begin grow into deeper trust in his truth, we find a life with many moments of pure joy.  

10 …I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. (John 10:10)

Joy is abundant life!