Lift that Listless Faith! (Conclusion)

"If, in the worst times, God’s people can lift up their heads with joy, knowing that all shall work for them to good, they will own it is God that is the lifter up of their head, that gives them both cause to rejoice and hearts to rejoice."  - Matthew Henry

Welcome! This message concludes our discussion on what you can do whenever you find yourself suffering from a sputtering spirit. As was previously mentioned, this is not uncommon, and can occur to any of us at any time.

To recap the topics leading up to this point, we explored: energizing our faith, fortifying our hope, activating our love, and enjoying our peace. You may re-visit these in my previous posts if you wish to freshen your memory. 

 

In addition to these fundamental elements, we will now add one more missing piece of the puzzle to the list. Faith is already mentioned, along with hope, love, and peace. Still, the omitted element serves an important purpose, as well.

The element I am talking about is "joy." Naturally everyone wants to do something that brings them joy! The Cambridge Dictionary defines joy as "great happiness." And who doesn't want that, right!? 

The Greek translation of "joy" in Strong's Exhaustive Concordance is "chara." Interestingly, this word is related to "charis" or "grace." which is undeserved favor. This consequently provides joy, pleasure, and delight.

Taking all of this into consideration, chara or "joy," then, is our reaction to undeserved favor. Or, we could think of it (joy) as the delightful response or reaction to the grace that is given to us by God.

Unquestionably, joy is a chief ingredient of what makes up the Kingdom of God (Romans 14:27). It also plays a key part in lightening the burden of the trials we encounter in our lives (1 Peter 1:6-9; Hebrews 10:32-34).

As was discussed during the course of this series, we must energize our faith, fortify our hope, activate our love, and enjoy our peace. Last but not least, we should always strive to enhance or raise our "joy."

How? Fortunately for us, both Jesus an His apostles provided words by which our joy might overflow or be complete (John 15:11; 1 John 1:4). And we cannot forget the importance of prayer in relation to joy, as per Jesus Himself (John 16:24). 

Faith, hope, love, peace, and joy seem like "everyday" words, at first glance. Yet, they are incredibly essential to the abundant life that Jesus offers to any who come to Him. Sadly, many Christians lack them in their lives.

There are two big reasons why this is so: the neglect of the Word of God, and the neglect of prayer. These, along with the fundamentals we've discussed, help to re-establish the core elements of the rich life found only in Christ (Philippians 4:19).

In closing, I'd like to thank you for following me through this series. And I wholeheartedly hope you've found it both informative, and beneficial to your walk with Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Savior (Colossians 2:6-7).

Scripture: Philippians 4:4; John 16:22; 1 Peter 1:8; 1 Thessalonians 5:16; Psalm 32:11 

Prayer: "The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes."  - Psalm 19:8

In Christ,

Claire