The Practice of Godliness: Godliness has value for all things (14 page)

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Authors: Jerry Bridges

BOOK: The Practice of Godliness: Godliness has value for all things
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Your personal thanksgiving list may not include all the items on my list, but it will likely include others. The important thing is to make such a list, and then use it. Set aside a period of time when you do nothing but thank God for the blessings on that list, as well as blessings more passing in nature.
Thanksgiving should also be included as a regular part of our intercessory prayer time. Paul seemed to always do this. He makes frequent statements in his letters such as, “We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you” (Colossians 1:3). Later in that letter he instructs the Colossians, “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful” (4:2). When we pray without giving thanks we impoverish our own souls and render our prayers ineffective.
Along with the practical steps for cultivating an attitude of thankfulness and a habit of giving thanks, we need to remember the place of the word of God and prayer in developing traits of godly character. An ungrateful heart (which all of ours are by nature) must be transformed by the renewal of the mind. This transformation is the work of the Holy Spirit as we fill our minds with the word of God. Again I encourage you to memorize key verses on thanksgiving, using some of the passages cited in this chapter or others of your choosing. As you meditate on these verses, ask God to give you a genuine attitude of thanksgiving so that you, too, may be found in the company of the one leper who returned to give God thanks.
9
Joy
For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
Romans 14:17

 

For a number of years the virtue of joy was not very evident in my life nor very high in my value system. As far as Romans 14:17 was concerned, I considered myself a man of peace, and I felt I was seeking after the ethical righteousness that is referred to in that passage. But I really hadn’t given much thought to the importance God places on the fruit of joy in our lives.
Then one day as I was reading through Romans 14, I realized that God was not satisfied with only righteousness and peace in our lives. Paul tells us very plainly that the kingdom of God is a matter of not only righteousness and peace, but also
joy.
Furthermore, I learned from verse 18 that without joy, my life was really not very pleasing to God.
The fact is, only Christians have a reason to be joyful, but it is also a fact that every Christian
should
be joyful.
True Christian joy is both a privilege and a duty. Jesus said, “I have come that they [His sheep] may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10). He has come that our lives might be full of joy. Twice in His talk to the disciples on the evening of His betrayal, Jesus referred to the joy that He desired for them to have. He has done all to make it possible for us to live joyful lives.
But we are not to sit around waiting for our circumstances to make us joyful. We are
commanded
to be joyful always (1 Thessalonians 5:16). We are to rejoice always (Philippians 4:4). Paul is quite emphatic about this: “I will say it again: Rejoice!” Like the other character traits we have examined, joy is not an option available only to those whose temperament is conducive to it. God intends that every one of His children exhibit the fruit of joy.
Just being joyful is not enough, however; we should continually be growing in joy. It is a contradiction for a Christian who professes to be a child of the one and only God—who created the universe and who governs it for His glory and the good of His people—to wear a gloomy countenance. As John W Sanderson says, “It is practical atheism, for it ignores God and his attributes.”
1
Yet if we are honest, most of us must admit that life is so often anything
but
joyful. It often seems that at best life is dull, and at worst it is filled with anxiety, conflict, and tension. What is it that blocks joy in our lives?
STUMBLING BLOCKS
One of the most common hindrances to joy is
sin in our lives,
or sinful attitudes in our hearts. Christian joy is essentially the enjoyment of God, the fruit of communion with Him. Sin obviously breaks that communion and the enjoyment of His presence. When David was confessing his sin of adultery with Bathsheba, he prayed, “Restore to me the
joy
of your salvation” (Psalm 51:12).
Psalm 32:3-4 vividly describes David’s lack of joy as he agonized over his sin. When we are not experiencing joy, we should examine our hearts and our lives. Are we doing or have we done something that is displeasing to God that we need to confess and forsake? Or, as is often the case, are we holding on to some sinful attitude such as envy or resentment, or a critical and unforgiving spirit? The fruit of joy cannot exist when such attitudes have control of our hearts. All sin, be it in attitude or action, must be dealt with if we are to display the virtue of joy in our lives.
Another stumbling block to joy is
misplaced confidence.
Paul told the Philippian Christians to “rejoice in the Lord” (3:1). He then made it clear that the opposite of rejoicing in the Lord is to put confidence in the flesh—in our good works or religious attainment. For the believers of Paul’s day it was Jewish legalism. For us today it might be our personal disciplines such as a regular quiet time, a consistent Scripture memory program, or faithfulness in witnessing to nonChristians. Whatever it is, if the source of our confidence is anything other than Jesus Christ and His grace, it is a false and oft-interrupted joy. As Sanderson says, “even success in the Lord’s work is a broken reed if we lean on it for security.”
2
If we are to have consistent joy, our attitude must be that expressed in the words of the old hymn:
My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.

 

In Luke’s account of Jesus’ sending out the seventy-two to preach, he says that they returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.” Jesus responded, “However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven” (10:17-20). It appears that Jesus was not discouraging joy in the ministry, but cautioning against the grounds of one’s joy being in the
success
of a ministry. Success in ministry comes and goes, but our names are written in heaven forever. The circumstances of this life rise and fall, but the assurance of being with Christ one day never changes. It is in this fact that our joy must be grounded.
I have referred earlier to the book
The Pursuit of Holiness,
which I was privileged to write several years ago. God has blessed the ministry of that book far beyond my expectations, and He has done it purely by His grace. I sometimes think I feel as the little boy must have who gave Jesus his five small barley loaves and two small fish, then watched in utter amazement as Jesus used them to feed five thousand people. Although I rejoice at what God has done through
The Pursuit of Holiness,
the fundamental ground for my joy should be not in a book and its ministry, but in the fact that my name is written in heaven.
Perhaps you don’t feel you have too much to show for your life. You haven’t written a book, or seen scores come to Christ through your witness, or done anything else that seems significant. But is your name written in heaven? If it is, you have as much reason to rejoice as the most well-known and successful Christian. Nothing you or I will ever do can possibly compare with having our names written in heaven. The most humble Christian as well as the most famous Christian stand together on that common ground.
A third area that can choke off joy in our lives is the
chastening
or
discipline
that God often administers to His children. Scripture says, “No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful” (Hebrews 12:11). Discipline is never a joyful experience; it is not meant to be, else it would not accomplish its intended results.
If we lose sight of its intended results, or feel we don’t deserve it, discipline can lead to self-pity. John Sanderson again provides a helpful insight into the relationship between discipline and joy when he says,
If we only knew how bad we are, we would welcome chastening because this is God’s way of getting rid of sin and its habits. But chastening is resented because we cannot believe that we have done anything worthy of it.
3

 

The secret of maintaining some semblance of joy in the midst of discipline is to remember that “the Lord disciplines those he loves,” and that “later on, however, it [the discipline] produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12:6,11).
Experiencing trials of faith
is a fourth hindrance to joy. Trials differ from discipline in that their purpose is to exercise our faith, not deal with sin in our lives. In His infinite wisdom, God allows trials in order to develop perseverance in us and to cause us to fix our hopes on the glory that is yet to be revealed.
Trials can come in many forms—nagging health problems, financial reverses, criticism and rejection, outright persecution. Whatever form the trial takes and however severe it may be, it is intended to strengthen our character. I once read of a sign on the entrance to a gymnasium that said, “No pain, no gain.” To the weight lifters entering that door, the message was plain. They knew they had to endure the agony of lifting more than their muscles could comfortably handle if they wanted to increase their strength. So it is with faith. Our faith and perseverance can grow only under the pain of trial.
Frequently, our reaction to trials is like Job’s. At the beginning of his testing, he reacted positively with the statement, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised” (1:21). But as time wore on and the trials, aggravated by the false accusations of his friends, continued, Job’s faith and patience gave out. He was finally reduced to saying, “It profits a man nothing when he tries to please God” (34:9). But though Job’s faith wore out, God’s faithfulness did not. He stayed with Job until Job had learned the lesson of God’s sovereignty, and then He gave Job twice as much as he had before.
God’s faithfulness should also be of comfort to us in times of trial. “Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love” (Lamentations 3:32).
STEPPING-STONES
Before considering any of the practical steps we can take to cultivate a joyful spirit, we must remind ourselves that joy is a fruit of the Spirit, the effect of His ministry in our hearts. Paul said in his letter to the Romans, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (15:13). It is by the power of the Holy Spirit that we experience the joy of salvation and are enabled to rejoice even in the midst of trials.
The Holy Spirit uses His word to create joy in our hearts. Romans 15 contains an interesting connection between God and the Scriptures. Verse 4 of that chapter speaks of the endurance and encouragement that come from the Scriptures; verse 5 says God gives endurance and encouragement. That God gives endurance and encouragement through the Scriptures should not surprise us. God is the source; the Scriptures are the means. The same truth applies to joy. Verse 13 speaks of the God of hope filling us with joy and peace as we trust in Him. How would we expect God to fill us with joy and hope? The reasonable answer is by means of the comfort of the Scriptures.
When I have experienced the Lord’s discipline, the passage in Hebrews 12:6, “The Lord disciplines those he loves,” has been a source of comfort and a means of restoring joy. When I was once experiencing what for me was a rather severe trial, Psalm 50:15 became a source of comfort: “Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me.” On another occasion when I thought my future looked bleak I was enabled to rejoice in the Lord through the assurance of Jeremiah 29:11, “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”’
These are the words the Holy Spirit will use to promote joy in our hearts. In order for Him to use the Scriptures, however, they must be in our hearts through regular exposure to and meditation upon them. This is our responsibility and is one of the practical means we must pursue to exhibit the fruit of joy.
But does the word always minister to us in times of need? Are there not times when the Scriptures seem barren and lifeless and utterly powerless to arouse the spirit of joy in the face of difficult trials? Yes, there are those times, but we must remember that it is the Holy Spirit who comforts us and enables us to rejoice. His word is simply His instrument. He works when and how He pleases, so we must look to Him with faith and patience to bring life to His word and apply it to our hearts.
I well remember a time when our family was struggling through a series of financial reverses. There was one thing after another: injuries, emergency hospital care, things breaking down at home, and frequent car repairs. The final straw was when the car broke down on a trip and we had to leave it for repairs at an unknown garage for four days. Assuming the worst, I lost all sense of joy in the Lord because I was focusing on circumstances rather than on Him. But sometime during those four days, the Holy Spirit enabled me to rest on the promise of Romans 8:28: that God was in control and was at work in those circumstances for my good. Romans 8:28 is a passage I had known for years, but it did not help until the Holy Spirit applied it to my heart and enabled me to believe it.
So again we see the principle set forth in chapter 5—we are both responsible and dependent. I was responsible to exhibit the fruit of joy during that time of financial reversal, but I was absolutely dependent upon the Holy Spirit for the power to do it. As we look to Him, though, let us remember that the purpose of rejoicing is not so we can feel better emotionally (though that will happen). The purpose of joy is to glorify God by demonstrating to an unbelieving world that our loving and faithful heavenly Father cares for us and provides for us all that we need.
Now for some specific practical aids to joy in our lives: an obvious one is,
Confess and forsake sin.
I have already referred to the lack of joy, or the strong spirit of oppression, that David experienced when he failed to deal with his sin (Psalm 32:3-4). But as David confessed his sin there was an interesting progression in his thoughts, starting from freedom from guilt, to faith in God’s deliverance, to testimony to God’s unfailing love, to rejoicing and singing (see verses 5-11).
God’s forgiveness is always a source of amazement to me. It seems incredible that in spite of repeated sins, if we confess them, He is faithful and just to forgive them. And the continued faithfulness of God to forgive and to restore me to His fellowship is a source of joy to me. I am ready to sing just as David did.
A second specific aid to joy is,
Trust in God.
Romans 15:13 speaks of God filling us with joy and peace as we trust in Him. It is God who stands behind His word. The promises of the Bible are nothing more than God’s covenant to be faithful to His people. It is His character that makes these promises valid.
I remember a friend of mine who, in the midst of a very deep trial, could find no comfort in the Scriptures. He asked God for some words of comfort but none came. He finally concluded that though the promises of the Scriptures seemed dead to him, he could trust in the character of God. God fills us with joy as we trust in Him.
Consider that absolutely amazing statement of Romans 8:28: in all things God works for the good of those who love Him. That statement is true whether you believe it or not. Your faith or lack of it does not determine God’s working. He is at work in all the circumstances of your life to bring out the good for you, even if you had never heard of Romans 8:28. His work is not dependent upon your faith. But the comfort and joy that statement is intended to give you is dependent upon your believing it, upon your trusting in Him who is at work, even though you cannot see the outcome of that work. God never explained to Job the reason for his trials. He simply brought Job to the place where Job trusted Him without an explanation.
Another aid to joy is,
Take the long-range view of life.
The Scriptures repeatedly affirm that the focal point of our joy should be our hope of the eternal inheritance that awaits us in Jesus Christ and the final revelation of His glory. Consider, for example, the following passages:
In this [hope] you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. (1 Peter 1:6)

 

And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. (Romans 5:2)
So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:18)

 

You ... joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions. (Hebrews 10:34)

 

To take the long-range view is to rejoice because our names are written in heaven; it is to rejoice in the Lord in whom alone we have the hope of an eternal inheritance that far outweighs whatever troubles we are now experiencing. To take the long-range view is to follow the example of Jesus Himself, who “for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2).
A fourth aid to joy is,
Give thanks in all circumstances
(1 Thessalonians 5:18). This refers, of course, to both pleasant and unpleasant circumstances. We are to be thankful all the time. This does not mean we are to be thankful
for
a difficult circumstance, considered in itself. Rather, we are to give thanks
in the midst of
every circumstance, good or bad. We are to be thankful that God is working in this circumstance for our good. We are to be thankful for past deliverances from trials. We are to be thankful that in this present trial God will not allow a greater burden than we can bear, and that His grace is sufficient to enable us to bear it. And as we give thanks to God we will begin to experience once again the joy that is our heritage in Christ.

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