Now fast forward to the future, let’s say 2011, see the same short fellow –this time around 23 years older, joyfully running towards the corner flag in celebration of a goal scored, finger raised in the air.
Ecstatic!
As the football crowds celebrate in frenzy, He dives and rolls on the ground, struggles to stand as teammates clad in chocolate jerseys stumble over him. He falls down again in celebration.
His name?
Lionel Messi.
He has found joy. The joy that makes him famous, the joy that pays him millions of dollars. He probably knew nothing like joy in the year 1992.he’s now the world’s best footballer.
Well, Now let’s think of you, the Christian, you are the Lionel Messi of 1992, you don’t live on the outskirts of the city but maybe you live on the outskirts of life. You don’t know the privilege of joy available to you, not just in your future but even presently. Yet your joy is a million times bigger than the little Argentine’s. The million dollars that come from Lionel Messi’s joy are peanuts compared to the exhilaration, peace; happiness, and joy derived from the sovereign joy that’s available to you through the reading of God’s word.
And you are not alone. That’s what most of us Christians are, we are joyless and naive pilgrims treading this fallen world. We don’t know what it means to experience that three letter word.
J-o-y
We don’t know what we have, right infront of us daily is an exclusive gift of joy like we have never seen.(if you’ve been there, you know what I mean, you could say more about that inexpressible, unseen cloud that fogs a Christian after they have been in the presence, hearts bowed and scripture open ,uh? )
Our churches are filled with joyless Christians yet the one assurance Jesus left us was an assurance of Joy in this Christian life. If you a Christian and have not tapped into this sovereign Joy –something is missing.
Yes, I will say it again, if you are a Christian and you don’t have Joy, something profound is missing. And I am not talking about the happiness that is derived from materialism as pushed by today’s prosperity preachers.i am talking the undisputed height of sovereign joy. Underline that. Only those who have gone behind the veil can fathom, only those who have been in the inner most courts can comprehend.
The intention of Jesus's words was that so that our Joy maybe complete. 2 John 1:12
So if you are a joyless Christian, you have declaring our master’s words null and void because you’ve neglected the very words with potential to unleash a torrent of sovereign Joy in your life. Someone I forget once said “Happiness is dependent on happenings ,Joy is dependent on Christ”- now I think they had a point.
So check again, what you are most ignoring could be the most transforming, otherwise, you and me risk falling in the same category - of Christians who have no clue about this exclusivity of sovereign joy.
May I never – the joy of the lord is my strength! Nehemiah 8:10 And his word is a lamp unto my feet! Ps 119:105
