Welcome to in Bolden, where through Bible scripture and commentary we seek a bold fate, and in doing so we share the amazing love and message of the saving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Hello, I'm Chris Shatter. I'm an ordinary Christian seeking a deeper relationship with our extraordinary God. Won't you join me?
Hi friends, are you looking for a life full of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and that ever-elusive self-control? Please join me over the next few weeks as we take a look at the Bible's verse in Galatians 5, 22 to 23, so we can experience the Christian life in full bloom. The six of us sat around the table enjoying our meal of tacos, as we somehow found ways to laugh and grab hold of normalcy. Then one of us heard her voice call from the other room, and my daughter jumped up to see what was needed.
Upon returning, she announced, she wants a taco, and so a small plate of our feast was made and delivered to the other room. We gathered around the bed of my dying mother-in-law, watching her savor a few bites of her favorite food. She had proclaimed to a nurse just a few weeks prior that she couldn't wait to be healed, so she could enjoy a taco and a beer. And although no beer was around that night, we all watched her take small bites of that tiny gift of a taco, and we cried in laughter.
And I realized this was joy. Psalm 149, 4 through 5 says, For the Lord takes delight in his people, he crowns the humble with victory, let his faithful people rejoice in this honor and sing for joy on their beds. I mentioned at the beginning of this week's look at joy that God brought me into one of the most difficult experience of my life not too long ago. When we finally submit ourselves to God's will, we can look back at our lives and see the pruning he has done in us for our good.
Those trials and tests were given at just the right time for the right purpose. To see our lives this way, we must recognize not only the love he has for us, but his sovereignty over us. He knows our timeline backwards and forwards. It's why we must give up telling God what to do and ask him to reveal his will to us.
And although I don't know what else he has in store for me in the coming years, I do know he prepared me for the death of the woman who started me on my joy journey. Author Dave Ortland who wrote on Jonathan Edwards in the Christian life says, Jonathan Edwards teaches us then of a God-centeredness of all joy in this fallen world. He reminds us that the formula to joy is not God and so much as God in. You see, God was in the room with us that night as we watched Bev grown into light with each tiny bite.
She wasn't pain free. She wasn't healed, but she was joyous. In just a few days, she would be gone. In her wake, she left a trail of glorious blooms.
Joy filled moments with friends who came to say goodbye. Quiet joy moments at 2 AM while pain medicine was administered, holding hands and remembering together and laughing as we struggled in Nepali to change bed sheets under her ravaged body. We could do all of this because she loved the Lord more than anything. We could find joy because we knew the Lord was waiting for her.
And as for me, had the Lord taken her, say, five or ten years ago, I would have been so angry. I would have felt so lost without her. And as I talk about this, yes, I'm still crying from missing her, but I'm not angry. I'm so happy for her that she is pain free.
She sits in the loving arms of God waiting for the last chapter to commence. Psalm 126 5 through 6 says, Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy. Those who go out weeping carrying seed to sow will return with songs of joy carrying sheaves with them. And the question for you today is, Do you believe him?
Do you abide in God? Do you believe that our tears will turn to joy one day? I know a number of Christians who have a very difficult time believing this. They have a difficult time with the apostles and Jesus reminding us to find joy, yes, even in the trials.
Yet we are surrounded every day with brothers and sisters who do fully believe this truth. Friends. As Christians who seem joyous in adversity, it's not them that are a mystery. It's those of us who aren't joyous that are the mystery.
We have the promises of God at our fingertips. We have been lovingly provided for by the Father. He has been with us in our trials. He is with you right now in whatever you are going through.
He is pruning. He is watering you. Seek Him, abiding Him. Ask Him to show you His will and thank Him for what you do have today, for there is always something for which to be thankful for, like a hockum.
My final thoughts on joy today come from Jonathan Edwards. What the Sun does to a valley as night gives way today is what joy does to the Christian as the heart is filled with joy. The Father is the Son itself. The Son is the brightness of the Son and the Spirit is the warmth of the Son.
Please join me next week as we look at the fruit of the Spirit. Peace. I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Embolden Podcast. Be sure to follow along so you don't miss any episode.
And check out my blog at Embolden.net.