04 Fruit of the Spirit: Joy

Krisan Marotta: Welcome to Wednesday in the Word. I'm Krisan Marotta, and this is my podcast about what the Bible means and how we know. This is the fourth talk in my series on the fruit of the spirit. You can find lecture notes for today's talk on the link below this podcast. Lecture notes contain an outline of the main points and links to everything mentioned in the talk. You can also find those lecture notes by going directly to Wednesdayintheword.com slash fruit-spirit-joy. Glad to have you along. Well, today we are continuing our study on the fruit of the spirit from Galatians 5, verses 22 to 23. Although we aren't going to be spending any time in Galatians. In the first talk in this series, I gave you an overview of the book of Galatians and in particular the context of where we find this list. And then we've spent the last two weeks on the first item in the list, which is love. Today we're going to move on to the second item in the list. Joy. My purpose in this series is to understand what Paul meant by these concepts. And that search is going to take us all over the Bible. We will be looking at various scriptures in both the Old and the New Testament to see what the Bible teaches about these ideas and therefore what Paul was likely to have in mind. Let me briefly remind you of the context in which we find this list, and I'm going to review this in every episode, but that review will get shorter as we go on. If you're jumping into the middle of the series, you might want to go back and listen to the introduction. Paul wrote the letter to the Galatians to correct the teaching of a group we call the Judaizers. The Judaizers believed that Jesus is in fact the Jewish Messiah, but they claimed that his death on the cross is not enough. They thought that believing in Christ was a necessary first step to salvation, but that Gentile believers must also live like Jews and follow the Mosaic law. In the immediate context of this list, Paul is arguing that being free from the law does not give us a license to pursue sin. As believers, we have a different motivation to avoid sin. We have the teaching and the guidance of the Spirit. As the Spirit teaches us truth, we learn to love God and to seek Him more, and we learn to hate sin as God does and repent when we fall into it. Paul argues that trying to keep the law through our own resources just produces a kind of phony moral transformation. Outward obedience to the law is not a genuine transformation because nothing about our character has changed. We may now strive to follow laws that we used to break, but inside we are still sinful, selfish, and hypocritical. He argues only the Spirit of God can change who we are on the inside and produce real, genuine moral change. The fruit of the Spirit then represents what that change looks like. The problem for us today is the words on this list can mean many, many different things. We see love, joy, and peace on bumper stickers and t-shirts, they're in advertising slogans, and we think it pictures some kind of Woodstock revival or hippie commune lifestyle where everyone gets along and always feels all these things on the list all the time. Well, my goal in this series is to get us back in touch with the mindset Paul had when he wrote this. I want to try to discover what Scripture says about these concepts and therefore what Paul had in mind. And that's why we're looking at various passages throughout Scripture where we find these concepts talked about. Today we're going to talk about joy. At first glance, there seems to be nothing to say. Everyone knows what joy is. Everyone knows when they feel joy and when they don't. I expect everyone listening today has gone through periods where you wrestle with guilt over your sins, sadness over the tragedies of life, and the losses and challenges. Many things in life cause us sorrow, and we know, well, that's not joy. If you're like me, seeing joy on the list grabs your attention. I mean, is Paul really serious about joy? Life is so full of hardships and trials and tragedies and disappointments, how can Paul put joy on the list? We may feel joyful once in a while, but I don't know anyone who walks around feeling euphoric and happy all the time. And if we as believers get discouraged, does that mean we should be worried that we're not really believers? So, what does it look like for joy to be a fruit of the spirit? To sort that out, we're going to tackle two questions. First, what is joy? And second, what does it mean for joy to be a fruit of the spirit? Let's start with the definition of joy. I think the easiest way to answer that question is to first look at what joy is not. Our gut reaction is that joy is the same thing as happiness. When I have joy, I feel good about everything, I'm up, I'm bubbly, I'm excited, and if I don't feel that way, well, then I don't have joy. But when you start studying this concept of joy in the Bible, one thing immediately leaps off the page. The Bible frequently describes a situation where we feel terrible and at the same time we have joy. For example, in 2 Corinthians, Paul describes his experiences as an apostle and the difficulties of having that role. I'm going to read 2 Corinthians chapter 6, verses 3 to 11, and listen to the long list of hardships he endured and then notice his conclusion. This is 2 Corinthians chapter 6, starting in verse 3. We put no obstacle in anyone's way so that no fault may be found with our ministry. But as servants of God, we commend ourselves in every way by great endurance in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger, by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love, by truthful speech and the power of God, with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left, through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise, we are treated as impostors and yet we are true, as unknown and yet well known, as dying and behold we live, as punished and yet not killed. And now this is six ten, listen to this, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing everything. We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians, our heart is wide open. In Second Corinthians six ten, Paul describes himself as sorrowful yet always rejoicing. That's a very striking combination of ideas. On the one hand, his life is filled with sorrow. His life is characterized by enduring great afflictions, by hardships and calamities, by beatings, imprisonments, riots, by hard work, sleepless nights, and hunger. You can see how that kind of a life would lead to sorrow. His life and his ministry were really tough. Many of the people he preached to tried to kill him, especially his fellow Jews. Paul writes in Romans about how he was emotionally devastated because so many of his fellow Jews rejected the gospel. Many of the churches he founded gave him grief. The Colossians were troubled by a heresy. The Galatians were confused by the Judaizers, the Thessalonians got all confused about the second coming of Christ, and the Corinthians didn't seem to understand anything. Only the Philippian church seemed to stay solid. In his letters, Paul often talks about his concern for those who have accepted the gospel and how he longs for them to continue in the faith. And we can see that concern in his letters. He pours out his heart in various places. Paul's life was really challenging. His life was threatened almost daily. His own people rejected him, and he worried about the young believers he left behind in every city. We don't have to look very far to find other believers who led very tough lives, Jesus being another great example of a tough life. But I bet when you survey your circle of friends, many of you are going through some really tough times. And yet Paul says he rejoices in the midst of all that sorrow. The biblical perspective is not that I cannot be joyful because my life is too hard. The biblical perspective is that we can be joyful right in the middle of all that hardship and trouble. So the first thing we learn about joy is that it accompanies the trouble in this life. Let's look at another example from 2 Corinthians. This one is in chapter 8, verses 1 and 2. We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia. For in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. So Paul is writing about the Macedonian churches here. They have generously helped others who were in trouble, and it appears to be a financial gift, even though they didn't have much money. But notice what he says: they helped in the midst of a severe affliction and deep poverty, but right in the middle of that is their abundance of joy. So again, we see whatever joy is, it is compatible with severe affliction and extreme poverty. Probably the most well-known statement on this subject is in the book of James. This is James chapter 1, verses 2 to 4. Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness, and let steadfastness have its full effect that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. Now James starts his letter by encouraging his readers to be joyful when life gets hard. Now we have to understand what joy is to make sense of what he's saying, and there is a lot to talk about with James. I have a whole podcast series on the book of James. If you're interested, I'll put a link to the series in the lecture notes. But you can see again that joy comes in the midst of trials. James is admonishing us to be joyful when our faith is tested by the various hardships of life. So how do we make sense of all this? Well, here's my definition of joy. Joy is the natural response we have when we realize something good is coming our way. It's not the feeling we have when all our troubles are gone. It is the response we have when we believe something good has come or is coming our way. Suppose I told you that when you turn off this podcast, your best friend in the whole world, who you haven't seen in a year, is going to knock on your door. How would that change your outlook? You may be having a rotten day, but the hope that you'll see your friend soon would bring you joy. Or suppose you're working really hard on a project, and I told you that at the end of this project, your boss planned to give you a raise and a vacation. That hope would change your perspective. You might still have to spend a few sleepless nights to get the project done on time, and that might make you tired and cranky. But underneath the struggle, you would have this joy because something good is coming your way. Something good is coming out of all that struggle. That's joy. Joy is the natural response we have when we realize something good is going to come our way. Now, why would we rejoice in trials or affliction or hardships? To be able to rejoice in trials is to be in a place where we understand the value of the gospel in a very real and practical way. Happiness is that feeling of euphoria that results when good and exciting things happen, but joy is more that sense of satisfaction, that confidence of knowing the end result of all of this is going to be really, really good. So joy is not a feeling of well-being so much as it is a confident response that this is going to be worth it. I think joy is more closely tied to hope than it is to happiness. The joy comes not from our present circumstances, but from the hope we have in the promises of God. We don't have to be happy in the midst of our sufferings, but we can be hopeful because we know God has a plan and a purpose for this suffering. And this suffering is going to take us someplace we really want to go. So joy is the response we have when we know it's going to turn out all right in the end. And we find this meaning many places in Scripture. Let's look at a few more examples. This is Matthew 13, 44. The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy, he goes and sells all that he has and buys the field. What's the joy over? The man knows there's a great treasure in the field. He doesn't have it yet, he doesn't possess it yet, but he knows it's there. He's about to spend every last penny he has to buy the field, but he knows in the end he's not losing, he's gaining. So he's joyous because something really, really good is coming. Let's look at another one. This is John 16, 21. When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come. But when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish for the joy that a human being has been born into the world. Here again, while the woman is in labor, she has sorrow. This is hard work. She doesn't feel great. She's struggling, she's in intense pain. But once the baby is in her arms, she has joy because something very good has arrived. What's the joy over? The outcome, the end result of all that hard work. Here's another one, Luke 15, verses four through seven. What man of you having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the one that is lost until he finds it. And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost. Just so I tell you there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. Here again we see one sheep is lost, the shepherd goes out searching for it, the search is challenging, it's hard work, but when he finds the sheep, he rejoices. Why? He rejoices because something good has happened. All that hard work has paid off. The outcome, the end result, was worth it. And then continuing in that same spot in Luke, this is chapter fifteen, verses eight through ten. Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it. And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost. Just so I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents. A woman loses one silver coin and finds it after hours and hours of searching. Why is she rejoicing? The good thing of finding that lost coin has come her way. She worked hard. She was probably anxious and fearful and tearful while searching, but in the end a good thing resulted, so she rejoices. Likewise the angels in heaven rejoice when a sinner repents, a good thing has happened. Let's look at another one. This one is the morning of the resurrection. When the women discover Jesus has risen from the dead, they run back to town with great joy. This is Matthew chapter twenty eight verses five through eight. But the angel said to the women, Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who is crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him. See, I have told you. So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Why do the women rejoice? Because something wonderful has happened. The outcome, the end result of Jesus' horrible suffering on the cross is that he was resurrected. He suffered greatly, but the result of that work was wonderful, especially for us. There is joy in the outcome. Now we could go on and on looking at examples, but each time we'll see joy is that satisfaction, that sense of well-being and how things have turned out or how we know they're going to turn out. And that gives us a clue as to how joy can coexist with sorrow. On the one hand, life is tough. Life is challenging. Many things cause us great pain in one way or another. But on the other hand, as believers, we know where those sorrows are taking us. We know that God has a purpose and a plan for our sorrows. We know that nothing that happens to us is outside of his control. Those sorrows take us someplace we really want to go because those sorrows test and mature our faith, and faith gets us into the kingdom of heaven. There's a lot to weep about in this world. The Bible never forbids weeping. This world is a difficult place, but we also know that God is going to triumph over it all. One day he will destroy sin. One day he will conquer death and put an end to it. He will gather his people into his arms and make us worthy, good, and holy. He will send his Messiah and set him on the throne of David to reign in justice and righteousness over all creation, and there will be no more tears, no more dying, no more suffering. That day is coming. It's a promise. God has said it will be, and it will be. But right now we are at war with a powerful enemy, sin, and we feel all the sorrows of that war. But we know how the war is going to end. The tide of victory has already turned. The cross proved to us that God will be victorious and free us from sin and death. One day our enemy will be fully, finally, and completely defeated, and we know the outcome in advance, so we can rejoice now. Joy is tied more to the idea of hope than it is to happiness. In fact, Paul explicitly ties these two together in Romans 12:12. He says there, rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Hope is the foundation of our joy. We can be joyful no matter what life throws at us because we know in the end it's going to be worth it. In the end, God uses all the sufferings of this life to teach us valuable lessons that we really need to learn. We stand to inherit the promises of God and life in the kingdom of heaven, and that very good thing is coming to those who continue to trust God. Joy is that satisfaction, the delight, the sense of well-being in knowing how things are going to turn out in the end. That puts us in a position to figure out how joy is a fruit of the spirit. And this is a point I'm going to make repeatedly in this series. We tend to think of the fruit of the spirit as being some sort of magical feeling that we have to tap into the spirit and then this feeling comes upon us. We think that before conversion, we didn't have these true feelings of joy, love, and peace. But now that the Spirit has filled us with these feelings, we always have them, we don't know where they come from. It's just this kind of force or magic power we can tap into. I would argue that is not what the Bible teaches. Love and joy and all the other items on this list are works of the Spirit because the Spirit teaches us truth and changes our understanding of life. So I would argue the fruit of the Spirit is not a magical glow that just spills out from the inside. The fruit of the spirit is not an automatic or immediate sense of wonder that we get upon conversion and that never leaves us if we're lucky. The fruit of the spirit is not like channeling the force in Star Wars where we tap into the power of the Spirit to produce a certain state of mind. Rather, the Spirit of God teaches us truth. The Spirit of God opens our eyes, opens our ears, removes our hostility to the truth and our rejection of God. Prior to the work of the Spirit, when we heard the gospel, we mocked, scoffed, and rejected it. We didn't get it. There was a time when you could have explained the gospel to me and I would have laughed at you. But now, when you explain the gospel to me, I understand and embrace it. It resonates with me. I recognize it as life-saving truth. Well, what caused the change? The Spirit of God worked in me. Bit by bit, through daily life struggles and challenges, the Spirit taught me the truth. And this seeing, this new understanding, produces results. It changes our worldview, it changes our perspective, and our new understanding leads to the fruit of the Spirit. Let's look at Romans 15, 13. This is the end of a section where Paul has been encouraging and instructing them on how to treat each other. And he says, May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Spirit you may abound in hope. Now Paul is praying for them. He asks God to fill them with joy and peace in believing. Believing is the foundation for the joy and the peace. Joy and peace result from having this foundation of belief. We are joyful, we have peace because we have come to believe. That is the biblical picture. If we try to find joy based on how we feel at any given moment of the day, then we are never going to have joy. If we try to base joy on how free we are from the ravages of sin, the sufferings and tragedies of life, then we will never rejoice. We might be mildly happy at times, we might even be deliriously distracted. But without faith, without belief, if we stop and consider the reality of our situation, that happy feeling will evaporate. The Bible teaches that joy is rooted in the unchangeable promises of God. Joy comes from the fact that God has promised to redeem his creation. He has promised to gather a people to himself. He has promised to free his people from sin and set them in a kingdom where his Messiah rules in truth and justice and where there is no more death or despair. We believers are on a journey to that place. In the kingdom of heaven, we will find everything we truly need and desire. If we believe that promise, if we really grasp that truth, as Paul says, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we will abound in hope. Standing on that rock solid truth becomes the foundation for joy and peace. Hope, joy, and peace are all tied to believing, and that all comes about through the power of the Holy Spirit. You can see why Paul talks about joy as a fruit of the Spirit. The power of the Spirit at work in our lives brings about belief. Belief brings about hope, and hope brings about joy. The Spirit makes our faith a living, dynamic quality in our lives so that we have an anchor to stand on when the storms hit us and we have a reason to rejoice. Not only are we coming to believe the promises of God, but through the trials of life, as the Spirit builds belief and conviction in us, we have tangible physical evidence that we are believers. We see ourselves changed. We face situations that tempt us to abandon God, that tempt us to give up on his promises, but we don't. We can look back and go, I made it through that. I can look back at all the hardships of my life and say, I'm still here, I'm still seeking God. I went through that dark night of the soul and I came out the other end with my faith intact. Why would we persevere? Because the Spirit is at work to give us faith. And persevering through the trials gives us tangible evidence that our faith is real and the hope of the gospel is ours. We can look and say, that's not just some abstract theology. I know that the promises are mine because I went through that and my faith survived. When we know the hope of the gospel is ours, we can rejoice. Not only are we joyful that God is going to rescue and redeem the world, but we know that we personally are going to share in that rescue. And the Spirit of God brings all of that about. The Spirit brings our faith to a level of maturity where we can have that kind of confidence in the hope of the gospel, and therefore we rejoice. This is a truly miraculous thing if you stop and think about it. We're talking about a supernatural activity of God, God at work through his spirit, transforming individual lives, individual people like you and me. Paul describes it at one point as the power that created the universe at work in you. The overwhelming power of God that planned out and stitched the entire universe together. That power has been brought to bear on you and me, and it changes us, and it's a miracle. And this miracle happens in daily life. It happens little by little, bit by bit, in the choices we make, in the struggles we face, in the places we fail and in the places we succeed, in the relationships we have and how we choose to treat friends, family, and coworkers. The Spirit works through all those daily mundane activities to bring us to a place of mature faith, hope, and joy. This is why Paul can say that joy is a fruit of the Spirit and then turn around and exhort us to rejoice. When Paul exhorts us to rejoice, he's not saying stop feeling bad. He's not saying feel good right now, that's an order. You could try to fake it, but no lasting change comes from that kind of effort. At its root, the exhortation to rejoice is an encouragement to believe. Take a breath, remind yourself what's true. Stop and remind yourself of the big picture. What reason do you have to rejoice? You may look around and discover that you have really wrecked your life through your own sinful choices. Maybe you don't have the kind of family you wish you had, or maybe you don't have the kind of career you wish you had. And from a worldly perspective, maybe you're not in a very good place. But if you're a believer, you can rejoice. Why? Because you have the promises of God, you have the hope of the gospel. You know that all those sins and failures are teaching you and maturing your faith and taking you to a place you really want to go. Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5, 16 through 18, he says this rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. I think the key words here are always without ceasing and in everything and all circumstances. Don't just turn to God when He gives you what you want, or in the good times, or when life is easy and everything makes sense. Rejoice always in both the good and the bad. Pray always in both the good and the bad. Give thanks in everything, both the good times and the hardships. The idea here is relate everything to God. View everything through the lens of the gospel. It's easy to rejoice and pray and give thanks when life is good and everything is going our way. When our problems have subsided for the moment and life is bliss, well, rejoicing is easy. It's easy to pray and be grateful. But when life gets hard, the temptation is to despair, to complain, to grumble, and to stop trusting God. And Paul's saying, you can rejoice even in those bad times because you understand what's going on and who's in control. Life may be bad now, but it's going to turn out well in the end. Even in the face of loss, persecution, tragedy, and all the pressures we're facing, even in all those circumstances, which, if you go back and look at Thessalonians, they were in some pretty difficult times. But even in those difficult times, there is a bigger picture. God has promised salvation. God has promised there is a plan. God has promised believers a place in his kingdom. We can rejoice always, despite our external circumstances, because God has promised to rescue us in the end from sin and death. And he is working toward that goal in these very circumstances. No terrible thing can come into my life where God would say, oops, I meant to catch that. I didn't mean for that to hit you, but oh well, you can face it. It's not like that. Nothing happens to us outside the merciful, gracious, loving hand of God. We can rejoice and pray and give thanks in everything we face because ultimately, even in a broken, fallen world, he is still in control. We may not know why God asks us to walk a particular path or face a particular situation, but we know where the journey is going to take us. Why rejoice when life is bad? Because the God of the universe is taking a broken creation, including you and me, and making it whole. That's what God is doing. And if we want to be part of that new creation, we can. Let's look at Psalm 30, verse 5. For his anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning. God is quite willing to take us through a season of trial and education, a season of learning and discipline. That's the weeping in the night. All these temporary afflictions will bring us to a permanent joyful state. Now that's a pretty good trade, and that's what we have to rejoice in. Let me give you an analogy. It's not the best analogy, but it works. Suppose you're working away in midlife. You're not on the top of your career, but you're not on the bottom either. You have young children to raise, you're trying to save for both their college education and your own retirement. And you're watching every penny so that you can pay for music lessons and braces and the new roof your house is going to need. Life is tough. You have to work hard, you're barely keeping your head above water, but you know that your beloved grandmother has promised you her sizable inheritance. You two have always been close. You have lovingly cared for her in her old age, and she has promised to leave you her sizable estate. That hope changes your perspective on your current situation. You can keep struggling to make wise choices, but you have a measure of confidence that your efforts are going to pay off. You're going to get that lift that will take you over the finish line if you just persevere today. You have a good, solid reason to hope for the best. You can rejoice in the midst of your struggles because of what you know to be true. Your belief changes the way you feel about each day, and it can change your perspective and your attitude. Well, the hope of the gospel is like that. We can have confidence now despite our struggles because we know we're going to finish the race. Given that all that is true, why does joy seem so elusive sometimes? I think it's because it's very easy to lose sight of what's true. It's easy to get so caught up in the cares and concerns and responsibilities of today that we forget the hope of the gospel. We get blinded by the pressures, the deadlines right in front of us, and we forget what we know to be true. We forget the big picture. Sometimes we get the picture backwards. We think the promises of the gospel are this sort of ghost ship on the horizon that we can barely see through the fog, and we have to keep convincing ourselves, yeah, the ship is really there in the haze. But in reality, this world we live in is the ghostly insubstantial ship in the by comparison. The days of this world are numbered. Christ secured victory on the cross. The outcome of the battle is already guaranteed. All of history is on a collision course with the day of the Lord. Jesus is coming back and he is going to bring victory and judgment. That event's going to happen whether we believe it or not. It's just reality. But it's easy to get distracted and forget what's really going on. Why does God wait so long? Why hasn't Jesus returned already? Because this life is our opportunity to find Him. This life is our opportunity to come to terms with the big questions of meaning and existence. Right now, the door to grace is open. Right now, if you seek God, you will find Him. But one day it will be too late. One day judgment will come just like it came to Sodom and Gomorrah and like it came in the days of Noah. Be grateful we have this nice long window of opportunity. The longer God delays his judgment, the more opportunity more of us have to find him. Okay, one more question. Why aren't Christians by and large joyful people? Why do so many of us struggle with depression and despair? On the one hand, it's natural we live in a hard and difficult world. Life is tough, tragedies strike. The longer we live, the more loss and regret we seem to accumulate. And in that sense, it's natural to feel bad about it all. Everyone suffers in this world. Even mature believers feel the weight of that sin and they suffer at the loss and the tragedies and the evil in this world. Death touches us all. It's appropriate to mourn over death and loss. Even Jesus, when he was on this earth, wept over death. So we don't want to beat ourselves up for feeling sorrowful about sorrowful things. But on the other hand, sorrow comes with some cousins we need to be wary of. Cousins like despair, self-pity, and discontent. And that's where belief comes in. We know what's true. We know there is a light at the end of this dark tunnel. We know that God has a purpose for all these trials and sufferings. We know that God can redeem any situation and bring something good out of it. We know that these trials are teaching us faith and faith will get us into heaven. The fact is, very, very good things are coming our way. And God knows what He's doing. Those good things are already in process. We can feel the winds of change blowing already. God is working for our ultimate good right now. The question we face when we're tempted to despair is: will I keep believing? Will I stand on what I know to be true or will I abandon it? You may have noticed in scripture, we frequently see the phrase, pray and don't lose heart. Those two ideas come together, and that's our choice. We can turn to God in prayer, crying out, I believe, help my unbelief, or we can despair. Our choice in all those hardships is to turn to God in belief or run away from him in self-pity. And when you turn to him in prayer and belief, you can find joy. Of course, all of us would choose peace over war and prosperity over poverty. It's not wrong to want peace and prosperity. It's not wrong to want an easy life. We were made to desire those things. We feel their lack. But the questions we have to challenge ourselves with now is what do we want most? Are we willing to live without something temporal now to gain something eternal later? What is most important to us? The good things of this earthly life are the hope of the gospel. Joy comes from belief. Joy comes from not losing sight of the promises of the gospel. Joy comes from trusting that God will do what he said he'll do. Joy does not eliminate sorrow, but it does triumph over it. Joy says to sorrow, I know you're temporal, and you will not last. The day is coming when you will be totally wiped away. The choice to rejoice is really the choice to believe. Now, weak as we are, we're not going to make this choice on our own. The further good news of the gospel is that this is also a work of the Spirit. The Spirit will make us the kind of people who persevere in faith. I heard R. C. Sprawl explain it this way once. Picture a father and a child walking along a road by a cliff. The father is holding the child's hand. The father could admonish the child to pay attention to his steps and to hold on tight, but at the same time, the father is not going to let go of the child's hand. The child could stumble and let his fingers slip in his father's grasp, but the father will never let go. Even when the child stumbles and skins his knee, the father's going to hold on tight. And that's how God treats us. We may stumble and fall, we may despair at times, we may need to be admonished to hold on tight, but God will never let us go, and therefore we can rejoice no matter what. You've been listening to the Wednesday in the Word podcast. My mission is to explain not only what a passage means, but how we figure it out. I don't accept advertising on my website, nor do I ask for donations. Your subscriptions and your ratings and reviews are the advertising for the show. Please leave a positive rating on your favorite podcast app or drop me an email. It encourages me to hear from you. But most importantly, tell a friend what you learned and where you learned it. Our theme music is graciously provided by Red D Coates. You can find his music, and I encourage you to go listen. He's got some great songs out there. You can find his music on heartfeltmusic.org. If you want to hear more or hear previous episodes in this series, please go to Wednesdayintheword.com. Thank you for joining me today. I'm Krisan Marotta, and I'll see you next week at Wednesday in the Word.