The Pastor’s Corner

This is a subject of great importance to me, because sometimes I find it hard to be joyful.  But I also have been thinking about where joy comes from and where I often search for joy.  These are just a few of my recent thoughts. 

The day was beautiful, mid sixties and sunny, the leaves were changing and blowing all over. Yet on the inside there was darkness and cold, frustration and despair, depression and a feeling of uselessness. Have you ever felt like that before? This is a description of what many Christians feel at times. I’ve felt this way, where joy has departed and though I don’t doubt God nor do I doubt His Word, much in life seems dull and drab. Martyn Lloyd Jones once wrote that we need to stop listening to ourselves and start talking to ourselves. I believe that this statement is very true especially in this context. Certainly we feel certain ways, at times we feel happy, sad, upset, etc, but our feelings are not what is in control of our lives nor are they always reliable. For example, what if you didn’t feel like eating, would you simply stop eating all together? No, not at all because we know that we need to eat or we’ll lose strength. So, listen to the words of the Psalmist David from Psalm 16:11 “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” The words recorded here are a treasure mine for the downtrodden heart. First we find that God makes known to us the paths of life. What a help this in the midst of insecurity: God directs, and while in those difficult times, notice that it is in God’s presence that we find the fullness of joy. So, in the heart of a struggle, instead of listening to ourselves maybe we should start telling ourselves that I need to be with the Lord and put our eyes on Him for in His presence is the fullness of joy.