Being Used by God Gives Reasons to Rejoice

When was the last time you felt great joy? Maybe it was when your team won the championship. Or your child – or grandchild – took his or her first steps. Or you landed your ideal job. Or maybe when you finally got that car you’d always dreamed of having.

We call this joy, but actually it’s only a passing emotion. In reality it’s happiness, largely dependent upon happenings. When good things happen, we’re happy. But what about when they don’t? Teams win championships but a season or two later we’re asking, “What have you done for us lately?” Those toddlers who take their first steps will grow up and might one day step on your heart. Jobs come and go, and cars get old.

Nevertheless, God and the Scriptures place a high priority on joy. In fact, in his list of byproducts of following Jesus, the apostle Paul wrote, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy,peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control…” (Galatians 5:22-23). The second thing he declared should be present in every believer is…JOY.

Note that Paul said nothing about happiness. It’s doubtful the apostle felt happy while sitting in prison or trying to survive a shipwreck. It’s not wrong with feeling happy when things go well, but joy is a different animal entirely. It’s something that can exist even during the darkest times – the doctor’s distressing health diagnosis; when the company says it no longer needs us in our “dream job”; when someone slams into that brand-new car.

The joy the Scriptures often point to isn’t dependent upon external events. It’s an inner quality bestowed by God’s Spirit, a sense that no matter what happens, He’s in control, He loves us, and He does indeed cause all things “to work together for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28).

For instance, there’s joy in knowing we’re God’s children, part of His eternal family. Even when we’ve gone astray. After his sin with Bathsheba, trying to cover it up by having her husband Uriah killed on the front lines of battle, and then being confronted by the prophet Nathan, King David had lost his joy. He’d fallen out of fellowship with the Lord, although the relationship remained intact. This is why he passionately wrote these words:

“Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Do not cast me from Your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me."

The only thing that can steal the joy we have in Christ is sin. But through confession and repentance, the Lord promises to restore it – in abundance. No matter what’s happening in the world around us, we can be assured of our salvation and everlasting acceptance into God’s kingdom.

Perhaps you’ve experienced joy in Christ’s power: His provision of a better-than-hoped solution to what seemed like an impossible situation. Replacement of that job you left with one that turns out even better than you could have imagined. Healing of a relationship that you feared had been destroyed forever. When we know God is at work, accomplishing something we know we never could have done on our own, joy overflows. 

And there’s the joy of being used by God – there’s something He wants to do and amazingly, He graciously includes us in His work. I’ve experienced this in many ways: Helping a man come to know Christ and then becoming his mentor and discipler as he began growing in his faith. Going (admittedly with some reluctance) to another country, unfamiliar with the language and culture, to minister to people there – and discovering despite my limitations and inexperience the Lord could use me to encourage believers there. Taking on a major work project as a staff member of a Christian ministry that seemed beyond my capabilities, but finding God was “able to do immeasurably more than all we could ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us” (Ephesians 3:20).

We can have temporary joy from the thrill of victory or a big promotion – or we can have the everlasting joy of being a child of God and one of His “fellow workers” (1 Corinthians 3:9). Sometimes we can have both, but the latter is something we can experience all the time!