Fight for joy

Fight for Joy!

Preaching on John 5 this weekend I suggested we all have a bent to turn from Jesus.  Instead of joy, delight, thrill, awe, and gladness at the marvel and wonder of Jesus we respond in a colourless, grey apathy.  We grumble and gripe and look not at the blazing beauty and power of Jesus but hunt in the shadows for some minor, perceived infringement we can use to resist the joy Jesus offers.  Find the talk here: http://www.thebeaconchurch.com/2013/01/09/john-51-14-alex-harris-06-01-13/

In John 5 the ‘Jewish leaders’ do it (though they represent all people in this).  Jesus gloriously brings a crippled man to wholeness and they manage somehow to hide their eyes from the blazing beauty and power of what Jesus has done and, peering into the murky shadows of their own created regulations, focus on the fact the crippled man, walking for the first time in 38 years, is carrying a mat – a minor infringement of a made-up, pedantic rule! 

Joy in Jesus is not our default

We slip into apathy; into nit-picking regulation creating and keeping; into shielding our eyes from the magnificence of Jesus so we can spy the minor infringement we perceive has occurred.  We have to fight this tendency.  We have to fight for joy and pursue delight and determine to keep our eyes seeing and minds perceiving and hearts receiving Jesus. 

Fighter Language

The New Testament uses this ‘fighter’ language constantly – here’s one example from 1 Corinthians 9:24-27:

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

It is everyone’s battle – to strike a blow at our natural tendency and to pursue and fight for joy and delight in Jesus.  And so I take a risk, trusting something personal to me will be of benefit to you. 

A personal prayer from a day that started joyless

Providentially and without reason I flicked my journal open to the daily entry made almost two years ago.  It was a normal day (by chance a Sunday).  For no obvious reason I woke up feeling the pull of my tendency to turn away from joy in Jesus.  To fight for joy or default to the tendency to draw away from Jesus - today's choice?  This was my opening prayer-salvo in that day’s battle: a dual artillery blast of God’s word and prayer.  Your battle to choose joy will be different.  But please join me and fight!  Fight our innate tendency to avoid the blazing beauty of Jesus.  Fight for joy in Jesus.  Maybe this helps?

[I have reproduced this personal, undrafted prayer as I wrote it - only taking out the paragraphs were I prayed for family members and friends.  The Bible quotes that open it stood out from my Bible reading that morning, Romans chapter 1.]

‘…a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel…Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ…’  (Romans 1:1,7)

Why so weary today?  Why so tired at the thought of the day, and even of church?  Why so empty?  Is it just the moment of waking?  I have to lead the people – stand and represent you to them and them to you and I barely have the motivation to stagger downstairs!  O Lord why is this?  Why so downcast O my soul?

And so I remember the gospel and Jesus and delight.  I remember my call and my call!  My call to grace and peace from God through Christ.  A call that outweighs all others.  The call to Christ.  O heart and mind and soul, praise the Lord.  Find joy.  Be lifted to a rock higher than me.  O come Lord Jesus come.

And second the call to be a servant of Christ; called to represent him in a specific manner; set apart for the gospel.  O Lord who is my Lord, come in power.  Be established as Lord and King, Champion and Ruler who has delegated and commissioned awesome authority!  An authority that is reflected today as your church gathers.  Lord take some of my words this morning and make them life-changing.  Take some of my words this morning and make them mind and heart shaping.  Work in the mysterious power of the gospel that my words might be ‘the very words of God’ and a ‘face to face’ encounter with the living God. 

[I pray for specific people, then continue…]

O Lord how good and kind you are.  I call to you from a faint and weary heart.  Hear me and lift me, to your glad praise and the worship of the splendour of who you are.  Come Lord Jesus come.  To God be the glory – no empty praise but the genuine desire that the greatness and the majesty and the weight of God would be put on display for all to see and reflect on – in my life, in my words, in my thoughts, in my actions, in my motivations.  Especially in my joy in your glory.  O come Lord Jesus come and be mightily displayed.  To the glory and praise of God alone.  You are mighty and glorious and powerful and great.

[I pray specifically for some things of the day, then continue…]

Beyond that today Lord fill me with your passion for your glory.  Fill me with desires for your ways and words that flow out in good and true service of Christ.  Do not delay but come in power.  Do not be slow but come in power.  Do not pass by nor neglect me but come in power.  To God and God alone to the glory – my joy!  Come Holy Spirit come.  No delay; no blockage; no slowness – come in your power to change me for your praise and glory.  To God be the glory and God alone.  You are marvellous, mighty and to be praised.  O come Holy Lord come.

[I pray specifically for Hannah and the boys, then finish…]

Hear my cry, O God, listen to my prayer.

From the ends of the earth I call you,

I call as my heart grows faint;

Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

For you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the fore.

(Psalm 61:1-3)

Thank you Lord for answering my prayer.  For lifting my spirits and heart.  For seeing something of the grandeur of you who are, always to be praised.  Amen.

Looking for something else useful in the fight for joy, try this: http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/a-very-short-prayer-for-joy-seekers