Joy and Offense

Hi Folks

“Our identity must be rooted in His desire for us” and “the greatest hindrance to prayer is because we don’t believe God enjoys us” - Wes Hall, International House of Prayer, Kansas

Recently, visiting a church, the pastor introduced the speaker this way, “come on William, offend us, shake us up’. Offend us ?!?! Offend us? No thanks! I came here for a quiet sit and to be entertained! How many of us can remember, before we were Christians, being offended by the gospel, the struggle, accepting Jesus, then the joy? Now, how many of us know that that is just the start of a journey (yes, we are saved and nothing can change that). Sometimes it’s like we have let Jesus into the hallway of our lives, we run off and fetch a chair and say, “now Jesus, you just sit here and keep quiet, I’ll handle things from here on in” Then when the kitchen’s on fire we run back into the hall and say, “Jesus, help me, help me, don’t you know the kitchen’s on fire?” Before running back into the kitchen . . So in some ways the ‘struggle, accepting Jesus, joy’ process is meant to be repeated as we journey on. Let’s ask God to make us willing to submit, for wisdom to recognise the devil’s lies. Here’s one I fell for without realising it. Looking back I think that I didn’t fully believe that God is good to me and good all the time. If we don’t fully believe this then the devil can sneak in and during hard times we become resentful. We stay too long with the ‘why has God allowed this to happen’ question and rebellion or self pity become our routes of choice. And to be honest I know I have a good long way to go with this . .

Sometimes we have a problem with Joy, in that we feel it is selfish to seek it or to be seeking to be joyful all the time. I’m not talking about chasing happiness as an end in itself, rather the joy from having an ever more intimate relationship with Jesus. And expecting, as we grow in this relationship, to be more joyful , more of the time. Scripture confirms this, church history also gives some clues, we can trust the Holy Spirit to guide as to what is truth and God has also given us the ability to ‘reason’ ie work things out with our brains! And learning from experience is also valid!

Evan Roberts, one the main characters in the Welsh Revival, was thought by some to be insane because he was, “too happy”. The welsh revival produced 100,000 new Christians, oh that I was that happy!

“Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever”, the Westminster Catechism

“17 For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. 18 If you serve Christ with this attitude, you will please God, and others will approve of you, too. 19 So then, let us aim for harmony in the church and try to build each other up “ Romans 14: 17-19

Here Paul tells us that living a life of ‘goodness’, ‘peace’ and ‘joy’ in the Holy Spirit will please God. Doing good is linked with living a life of peace and joy

“16 Always be joyful. 17 Never stop praying. 18 Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.
19 Do not stifle the Holy Spirit. 20 Do not scoff at prophecies, 21 but test everything that is said. Hold on to what is good. 22 Stay away from every kind of evil” 1 Thessalonians 5: 16-22

“Always be joyful” is fairly unequivocal – it couldn’t be much clearer really !

My plea to you and for me, is this – submit, ask Him to show you areas of your life you need to hand over. Get hold of “God is good to me, all the time!”, say it out loud! Ask the Holy Spirit to nudge you when you have a thought or say anything contrary to God is good, so that you will say “No, wait a minute God is good to me/you, all the time”. Run after Him, because He is running after you, He totally loves you, you are unique, loved with a unique love, His favourite, with a unique job to do for the Lord that no one else can do! Be humble/courageous enough to ask someone you trust at your church to pray with you (or if you have a regular ministry time, get up there!), ask them to put their hand on your shoulder and tell them , look I always feel rejected like nobody likes me or I just can't believe God loves me, or that God would ever use me or that God would ever heal me or whatever it is - because God has something for you!

Andy