The Birth of Joy
What Brings Joy – Part IV
Scripture Reading: Psalm 92
Key Verse: Psalm 96:11
Let the heavens be glad, and the earth rejoice!
Let the sea and everything in it shout His praise!
Continuing from yesterday’s devotional and Mark 2:1-12, Jesus did finally heal the paralytic because the Pharisees in the room questioned Jesus’s authority to forgive sins.
However, what I want you to note is that the greatest thing that Jesus could have done that day was what Jesus did first… He forgive that man of his sins. Had that man only had his body healed but not his soul, that man’s soul would be in hell today. We don’t like to talk about hell these days, and I understand how unpleasant it is. However, when we lose the reality of hell, we lose the reason for a believer’s joy.
The title for this first week of devotionals is “The Birth of Joy”. Do you know when that birth of joy really happens in us? That birth takes place the moment we recognize that we are sinners and simply trust that Jesus forgives our sins. It is then that we can truly sing “Joy to the World”.
Let’s return to the question I first asked in this devotional: “what brings you the most joy?”. That answer is far different for a Christ-follower than what brings you the most happiness.
Again, happiness is very dependent on the circumstances of your life at a given moment. Joy is that underlying truth that comes to believers when they know that Jesus has forgiven their sins and they are on their way to heaven!
Do you realize that, according to Biblical historians, most of Jesus’s disciples were martyred for their faith in Jesus? Certainly, all of them were persecuted in one way or another because of their faith in Jesus. These men were human, just like you and me. They were not happy about the persecution. They found no happiness about the way they were about to die. But they did have the joy in their hearts that gave them hope for the great rewards waiting for them in heaven!
If you have asked Jesus into your life, to forgive your sins, AND you are doing your best to live out the truths that Jesus taught, do not lose sight of the joy those decisions should bring. Life will not let us be happy every day, but life cannot take from us the joy of our eternal salvation!
Father, I will praise you throughout eternity for my salvation. In Jesus’s Name I pray, amen.