Advent: Joy

Joy to the World, the Lord is come!

This is one of the most popular and familiar carols sung around Christmas. It is full of hope, and expectation, and, naturally, joy! But what are we to be joyful about? If we look around in our society we see lots of brokenness, pain, frustration and sorrow. We see families falling apart, jobs lost, sickness and sadness. Where is the joy?

It is true that if we look to our world we have a hard time finding joy, and that’s why we need to look outside of creation. Everything within creation has been frustrated by sin and brokenness (read Romans 1 to get the full effect). Even those things that are supposed to bring us joy quite often let us down.  

But let me give you some good news about joy! Jesus came into the world, into creation, to fix what is broken and restore what’s been lost. He came to bring us joy, and joy in increasing measure. What I mean by that is that the more you trust in Him the more joy you’ll have! It doesn’t mean that all your problems will suddenly disappear. In fact, you may have new problems because you are following Him more closely. What it means is that you will see the problems and trials that you’re facing for what they really are — momentary and short lived. When our hope and satisfaction come from Jesus we will find that our joy is magnified (See Philippians 4:11-13).

So this Christmas, don’t let your joy only come from stuff, or events, or even relationships. Focus first on Jesus, the giver of every good gift — give Him thanks for blessing you — and recognize that through Him, only through Him, can we have true, lasting and eternal joy!

Pastor Mike