I was listening to a John Piper sermon on joy and was reminded of how being joyful in the Lord is glorifying to Him, commanded of us and the reasonable response to knowing Him!
Deut. 28:47 “Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and gladness of heart, for the abundance of everything, 48 therefore you shall serve your enemies, whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in need of everything; and He will put a yoke of iron on your neck until He has destroyed you. (NKJV)
This makes sense when you consider the fact that what we seek our joy in - is our functional God. If we will not see God as our gracious source of joy for His past, present and future grace toward us in Christ, we will seek it in the things of the world and we will serve them, not God!
Is this a call to heap guilt on our lack of Joy? I don't think so, but rather a call to recognize how great our God is and how great we have it in Him, then we will have Joy in Him and the glory is all His!
"Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved."
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