Hope and joy – 12 October 2006

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.
Romans 12:12 [NIV]

It is easy to feel joy when everything is going well – not so easy to be joyful when there is persecution, affliction or other desperate circumstances in our lives.  The mark of a mature Christian is the extent to which joy is evident in all situations.  This joy is bound up with hope and is truly a fruit of the Spirit:

 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  Against such things there is no law.

 Galatians 5:22-23 [NIV]

 Last year I read the book “The Heavenly Man” by Brother Yun of the Chinese house church movement.  His book is full of accounts of joyful hymn singing and worship even when in jail, having been beaten and deprived of food for weeks on end.  This is a joy worth having!

The knowledge of our relationship with our Saviour and Redeemer is the basis of this hope and joy and is very well expressed in Handel’s Messiah – quoting from Job:

 I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth.
And though worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.  
Job 19:25-26

Amen.

Dave MacLellan