The Gift of Joy

As I’ve worked back through the study, Fight Back with Joy by Margaret Feinberg, I have replanted the memory verses from each week in my heart and mind. Memorizing and praying God’s word is a powerful tool that always accomplishes good in those who are trained by it.

The most difficult passage to memorize has been Habakkuk 3:17-18, but the message God has planted in my heart and mind from it is quite powerful-

Though the fig tree should not blossom, and there be no fruit on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls; yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places.

The word here is that even when circumstances are difficult and there is no evidence of fruit, God’s provision of joy is present because He himself is the reason we are glad. He is the one who has saved us. He is our strength. He leads us over the heights that seem insurmountable before us!

During these weeks of Advent, we celebrate the arrival of God’s gift of salvation- Jesus, and this third week of Advent we acknowledge that Jesus came to be our JOY!

According to Habakkuk, this is joy that is present even when circumstances are difficult and there is no evidence of fruit. This kind of joy is truly good news for all people!

As I come to the dawn of a new year, I’ll be glad a difficult year is ending. The calendar will flip to a new beginning, but I’m wise enough to know that everything that is troubling me will not simply be gone with the old dates. There will still be a virus to fight and a struggling economy. Quarantines and lockdown measures may remain in place for many. Visiting family may very well continue through windows and over the phone. There’ll be prayers I’m still lifting without any evidence of God’s activity or answer.

Weary places that require perseverance and trusting faith will go with me into 2021. I won’t find joy in the changing of the calendar if that’s where I’m looking for it. Joy in 2021 will be found where it has always been- in the babe in the manger whose advent we celebrate next week- in Jesus!

So today, I’m challenged by this question- how will I begin a new year with what remains from 2020? Will I find joy illusive as I continue to fix my gaze on the world around me, or will I walk into 2021 as Habakkuk describes, fully clothed in the joy of the Lord and in his strength?

Habakkuk’s words equip me with truth even when I see no evidence of God’s activity, answer, or blessing. I can rejoice and take joy in the God of my salvation. This produces strength in me and enables me to tread on my high places- on the things that seem like mountains before me, that threaten to stop me right where I am, leaving me overcome, defeated and joyless.

Habakkuk reminds me that I don’t have to be overtaken by what seems insurmountable and unchanging in front of me. When the joy of the Lord is my strength, I get to stomp on the high places as God leads me over and through them to a place of promised and sure victory. Circumstances do not have to best me, for The Gift of Joy is my strength!

Would you take a few minutes to identify your high places?

Then determine to speak and pray God’s Word over them-

In doing this, you will invite God to lead you out of 2020 with The Gift of Joy as your strength, ready to scale the heights of 2021!