Sowing the Seeds of Joy

      We are told to be the happiest people on earth.  But let’s face it.  We live in a depressing world.  Sin surrounds us.  Sickness overwhelms us.  Death is everywhere.  On top of these, because we are Christians, everyone else ridicules us.  How are we supposed to have joy in the face of all this?

      We do not need to be overwhelmed by trying to grapple with every aspect of joy in the face of struggles.  As with any fruit that we want to bear, we need simply to sow the proper seeds.  The same is true for joy.  But what seeds must we sow?

      Peter claimed that Christians can rejoice even in the face of hardship because of their faith (I Peter 1:8).  Because we believe in Jesus …  Because we believe He died for us …  Because we believe He has reserved an inheritance for us, we can rejoice, looking past all the troubles we face on earth.

      But faith does not just happen.  If we want to have the faith that will produce God-glorifying joy, we must sow the seed of Bible study.  Faith does not come from Chicken Soup for the Soul.  It comes from God’s word (Romans 10:17).  We must read the stories of God’s people and God’s promises; see God’s faithfulness to people of faith.  As we trust God more, our joy in Christ will increase.

      If we want to bear the fruit of God-glorifying joy, we must sow the seed of thanksgiving in prayer.  We should not spend all of our prayer time focusing on what we want but do not have.  Instead, we should spend time looking at what God has already done for us.  It is no wonder that Paul tied thanksgiving together with rejoicing in I Thessalonians 5:16-18.  When we spend our time thinking about all the things for which we have to be thankful, we will naturally spend more time rejoicing.

      This will take practice.  We have to force ourselves to count our blessings and think about positive things (cf. Philippians 4:8).  Then we must take time to actually offer thanks.  Remember, God has not asked us to have some kind of nebulous thankful attitude.  He has asked us to give thanks.

      Finally, if we want to bear God-glorifying joy, we must sow the seed of focusing on heavenly things (Colossians 3:1-2).  In Acts 20:24, Paul demonstrated why this seed bears joy.  Because he was focused on heaven, he was not distracted by prolonging his earthly life.  Therefore, he was able to face even possible execution with joy.

      When we take daily time to think about heaven, how much we want to go there and God’s promise to take us there, we can take all this life has to throw at us in stride and maintain our joy.

      We do not need to be overwhelmed by all the implications of God-glorifying joy.  We must simply sow the seeds of joy and we will bear fruit that glorifies God.  How many seeds will you sow this week?

Edwin L. Crozier