The Energy of a Joyful Heart.

There is enough going on to crush your spirit. There’s no escaping its ‘arrows’. The effect it can, and usually does have, is to make a person a ‘punctured tyre.’ Sure you can keep going, but the movement is hard work and ultimately damaging. The writer of Provers summed it up this way:  A merry heart makes a cheerful countenance: but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken.’ Proverbs 15:13. He also wrote in 17:22, ‘A broken spirit dries the bones.’

We live in a ‘wacky’ world. Do yo agree? Do you find it nigh on impossible to have the inner energy required to create a merry heart that doesn’t evaporate? Sure, we have a pleasant moments which touch us and then vanish. Is there something which will grip us, take root within and revive a broken spirit? If there is, and it has a proven track record, are you interested?

The writer of Proverbs likened it to a merry heart. Trouble is we can be merry one moment and mournful the next.  A far better word which also has its own energy power- plant is ‘Joy.’ The term must be linked to someone, something beyond a nice, fuzzy feeling, otherwise it too will crash and burn. The best example from Scripture has to be Jeremiah. This prophet was energised by joy amidst spirit depressing, ‘bone’ crushing experiences.

This prophet had it tough. Branded a traitor, his sermons wasted on the callous and indifferent and being shoved down a stinking well as a prison should crush the spirit. To top it all off, he witnessed the destruction of his beloved city Jerusalem, then was forced to go to Egypt never to return. What legacy did he leave us to verify the case for being energised by joy in a joyless situation?

The book of tears, Lamentations which is the 25^th book in the Bible, reveals the inner energy of joy. This energy is linked with hope grounded in an unconditional promise. Here are Jeremiah’s power-packed words. “This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion; therefore I will hope in Him. The Lord is good to them that wait for him, to the soul that seeks him" 3:21-25.

Was the prophet delirious in his brokenness? No! Where then did he rest his heart? On what was his hope built? The promise of Yahweh that the Messiah would come through Israel. No apostasy of the nation, no captivity by Babylon or others, no device of the Devil would prevent what we call the Christmas event. Jeremiah recorded “Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me joy and rejoicing of mine heart.” Jeremiah 15:16. He also believed the promise that in the future of the nation. “It shall be to me (God) a name of joy, a praise and honour before all the nations of the earth …” Jeremiah 33:9.

Notice the energy supply line. God’s promises, recorded in the Bible, provide hope which can be ‘eaten’ by faith and create joy. In turn this dissolves the darkness of despair and ‘pumps up the tyre’ of the heart. There is something beyond description when a person today feeds upon God’s Word. In the words of Scripture, ‘The joy of the Lord is your strength.’ A faith relationship grounded on the rock of His promise producing hope that energises the spirit.

Next week: What was the joy of Jesus that He promised to share? John 15:11

©Ray Hawkins October 8^th 2017.

Hope Even When Despair's Tear Fall

To look into the eyes of the displaced people from Syria, Iraq and elsewhere, what has God got to offer them? Does the Bible speak to their situation? Do all we have to say merely sounds like pious but hollow words?

There is a book in the Old Testament written especially for people caught up in war. It was written by the prophet Jeremiah after the destruction of his beloved city, Jerusalem. The book is called Lamentations. In any conflict the innocent suffer. The causes of the conflict will vary from that of Israel in Jeremiah’s day. You read of his anguish, his identification with its destruction and even his questioning of God. However in the midst of this book of tears the radiance of Hope bursts through. This isn’t a whistling in the dark, fingers crossed type of hope. It is founded on the rock solid faithfulness of God to His promises.

Jeremiah was distraught by the apparent hopelessness which the burning rubble of city and temple presented. He believed God had promised through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob a Messiah and King would come through the tribe of Judah. Was all that now abandoned by God because of human faithlessness, failure and folly? The nation was in captivity in Babylon. The city destroyed. God’s promise seemed null and void. Had the ungodly won the battle?

Even today this scenario is being played out, especially in Islamic countries. Rival Islamic militants are intent on destroying each other. All of those Islamic groups also have the desire to eliminate Jews and Christians. Where is the Lord Jesus Christ in all of this? The United Nations relief agencies are in the camps supplying food and shelter but where can hope be found? Where will the heart find comfort that truth, righteousness and justice will ultimately one day come? When the Christian suffering refugees bury their dead what will sustain their faith? What can they offer to the children who are hungry, naked and confused?

There can only be the promises of God spelt out in the Bible. These are not wishful thinking words. The promises of God are verifiable and tested by time and fulfilment in a number of areas. Jeremiah wrestled in his pain, poverty and loneliness with wondering if God would succeed in doing what He promised. The prophet wrote down his convictions in Lamentations 3. (see below). He also declared that God would bring back the nation to the Land after seventy (70) years. It happened! We also know that God kept His word in the sending of His son Jesus to be the Messiah. Christmas and Easter are testament to that.

Therefore, what hope can we offer to those who sit in the rubble of their world? What can we say when injustice, cruelty and corruption flaunt themselves and defile the Name and Word of God? ‘(God) has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead’. (Acts 17:31 speaking of course about Jesus Christ) Compare also Jude 15-25 Revelation 20.

The Bible is actually a book written to refugees assailed, expelled or threatened for their faith in Jesus as God’s Son, our Saviour. Those of us in the more stable countries at this moment need to pray for those who are suffering and dying for their faith, now. We may well be next. Therefore each of us needs to reconnect and take to heart the wonderful words of faith which held Jeremiah together even as his tears of despair flowed.

‘My soul … is bowed down within me. But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope; The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, His mercies never come to and end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in Him.” The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul that seeks Him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.’ (Lamentations 3:20-26)

Hope is founded on God’s character, integrity and track record in fulfilling what He promised. Now is the time to be strengthened in it through reading, believing and obeying His word. Now is also the time to make His promise of forgiveness and a new destiny by putting your trust in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour. He is the One who will one day come to judge the world in righteousness. That’s hope sustained by God’s faithfulness!