April 29--How to Find More Light and Joy Than You Know What to Do With

Life can be dark and bleak, and it can threaten to swallow us up, but we can find light and joy regardless of hard circumstances.  Today's passages tell how:  Judges 10, Luke 24:13-53, Psalm 97, Proverbs 14:10-11.

Click here for the written post of today's episode.

Eve reads her Bible journal aloud on this episode.

Click here for the FREE Yearly Bible Reading Plan she uses.  

Transcript

Judges 10

Luke 24:13-53

Psalm 97, Prayer, Proverbs 14:10-11

SPEAKER_00 0:00

April twenty nine How to find more light and joy than you know what to do with I won't be reading the scripture references. For those, please check the written post. She sat slumped with closed eyes, and with every breath she leaned over farther. When her torso was nearly horizontal over what should have been her legs, she jerked up and started over, like a weighted metal bird pecking grubs in your garden. Intrigued I sat down beside her and watched closely, trying to figure out her story. I had a hunch she was pretending to nap to avoid stairs in the dermatologist's office. If she was, no judgment, alone and without legs, with a rash from her face to her fingertips and who knew where else she had to be embarrassed at the least, and was likely suffering. I wondered how she might have gotten there. I worried how she'd get home. I touched her arm and spoke. Excuse me, and I'm sorry to bother you, but the last time you leaned over so far, I feared you'd fall right out of your wheelchair. She opened her eyes and smiled wide eyed with surprise as she said Well hello. She was as awake as I was and as friendly as if she were the hostess for the office. We exchanged names. Hers was Jennifer. I jumped right in. Would you tell me what's happened to you? And with that she poured out her very sad tale. I don't know which of us will be called back first, Jennifer, but can I pray with you before we go? She nodded and grabbed my hand as I prayed out loud. Looking back I have no idea what I said, but the joy afterwards lasted the rest of the week. Pastor Eric has stopped in his tracks to pray with me more times than I can count. When my husband had a stroke, when our son was rebellious, when our daughter got married, but mostly when I've been a mess. When your situation is bleak and you're desperate for relief, it makes sense that you go to the source of light and joy for help. It also makes sense that you go with those who need it. Being desperate has its benefits. It plugs you in like nothing else. Today's passages have more to say about how to find the source of light and joy. The Old Testament chapter is Judges ten. When troubles come, it's easy to be sorry about what you've done to cause the misery you're stuck in. No one likes suffering their dire straits, but it's another thing entirely to actually repent of what you've done that caused your straits in the first place because repentance means to completely turn from whatever it is, not just to feel sorry for it. Few do. Because when the pressure is off, the bill gets paid, the relationship takes an upturn, the promotion comes through, it's easy to forget the promises we make to God for how we'll turn around this time. When good times come, people forget God. I know I do. This is where we find God's people in Judges ten. Not much is said about the judges Tola and Jair here, except that during their time leading Israel, God's people honored him. But once these judges were gone, the people quote, went back to doing evil in God's sight, end quote, by worshiping the gods of their neighbors as if God's not right there, present and available. As a result, their enemies mercilessly bullied and badgered them because God let them. Even then their misery didn't put them on their knees. But when the Ammonites crossed the Jordan River to go to war against them, they feared for their lives and cried out to God for help, confessing they'd sinned when they, quote, left our God and worshiped the Baal gods, end quote. But God's not a pushover. For all their blubbering, he didn't step in right away. He reminded them of their history with him, how he saved them again and again, only to see them return to their idol worship once the threat goes away. So this time he told them they can cry all they want, but they ought to be crying to their no gods, not to him, and quote, let them get you out of the mess you're in, end quote. God flat said, I'm not saving you anymore. Did God mean it? It sure sounded like it. God knew their hearts and knew whether or not they were repentant for their sins, or if they were just alarmed for their consequences. He knew it wasn't time to ride in on his white horse and rescue them yet. More hard times were needed before his people were really ready to repent. Sure they're sorry, sure they're suffering, but repentance isn't feeling sorry for the sorry circumstances you're in. Repentance isn't necessarily a feeling at all really. Repentance is being grieved over your sin against God and not just with its consequences. It's turning away from sin and to God for help to handle what you can't. It's not doing so much as it's depending, not resolving yourself to action so much as it's trusting God to act for you and to help you when you're weak. It's coming to the end of yourself and admitting you can't be your own Jesus and turning to the one who's right there for you. God isn't surprised by sin, he doesn't expect perfection. Jesus' death paid sin's price and it no longer rules over us. What God wants is our connecting with him in our sin, our dependence on him to pull us out of it, our turning to him as often as we need him. All through the Bible God says that the thing he holds against his people is the way they try to live life without him, ignoring him as if he's not with them, which always surprises me. Because when you think about what he might hold against sinners, you'd think he'd have a list of the worst ones he can think of sex trafficking and child abuse, murder and mutilation, sorcery and satanic worship, just to name a few. Quote, they live life without me, end quote, seems like a strange list hopper of gross sins. But to God, turning away and living life without him is the big, bad, ugly. This is what his people did. They quote, walked off and left God, end quote. They simply stopped worshiping him, and before God steps up and saves them again, he wants them to come to terms with this because looking to something else besides God for life is what underlies idol worship. Idolatry today looks the same way. We find the right community, the right job, the right spouse, the right gym, the right food, the right clothes, the right life hack, and work and work and work it, which is really code for worshiping it, expecting it to carry us into the good life we dream of. But of course it can't do it. When hard times come we realize just how flimsy it is. The cool people turn on us, the job is lost, the spouse grows cold, we pull a hammy or get sick or paunchy, the clothing that costs too much goes out of style. What then? Nothing saved save God alone. This is why he commands that we worship him only, because he knows he's the only saving show in town, and he wants us to have total access at all times for any and every reason. twenty four seven. Worshiping God only is the insider's track that guarantees it. Israel suffered long enough that they were finally ready to repent of their sin against God, and they threw themselves on his mercy. They told him to do whatever he thinks best, quote, but please get us out of this, end quote. And to prove their sincerity they got rid of their foreign gods and worship God only. And after they repented, quote, God took Israel's troubles to heart, end quote. He came in on his white horse and saved Israel through Jephthah, though it won't be the last time they'll need saving, and God knows it. They'll fall farther and farther into sin than any mentioned here, and still God will keep showing up for them. He won't break his part of his covenant promise no matter how many times they break theirs. God doesn't just rule the world from his lofty and lifted up throne in the heavens. He gets in the trenches, goes to the mat, fights for us as he enters our hearts and our messes, and gives us just what we need for the moment we're in. That's what Jesus' incarnation demonstrated. He came down as God made flesh to be with us, and now as God's spirit, he's God within us. It's astonishing how good we've got it for how bad we've been and sometimes still are if we're honest. But not to worry, God does whatever it takes to bring you home to Him while taking the troubles you've caused straight to His heart. And just like He forgives Jennifer who fakes it in public and forgives me when I'm losing it elsewhere, he does for each of us because no matter how far gone you are or how long you've been wandering, everybody who repents is forgiven and grafted in simply for holding up a hand and asking for it. You can find the source of light and joy through repentance anytime you need it. The New Testament passage is Luke twenty four, thirteen to fifty three. All was death and darkness just the chapter before this one, but by chapter twenty four the sun comes out because Jesus is alive and his disciples are overjoyed. Jesus takes turns revealing himself to his disciples, speaking truth to them, enlightening and lightening them. Later John would say that he was the lifelight to live by. Just ask the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, who walked with Jesus and later ate supper with him before they recognized him. He showed them all the scriptures he fulfilled with their hearts on fire as he did it. Just ask the disciples who saw Jesus right in front of them alive and eating fish. These same disciples worshiped him as he blessed and left them, and then they returned to Jerusalem, quote, bursting with joy, end quote. So much joy, in fact, that they spent all their time praising God at the temple. Light and joy mark the lives of those who've been with Jesus. His light reveals our utter need of him, while our joy brims as we marvel over what he does for us. It's just too good to be true. If your life isn't marked by light and joy, ask God for more of his spirit who brings it, but be prepared to say ouch, the refining process he does is arduous, but the outcome is worth it, more light and joy than you know what to do with. You can find the source of light and joy by asking for more of God's Holy Spirit. From Psalm ninety seven. This Psalm says that God sows light and joy inside his people, quote, light seeds are planted in the souls of God's people, and joy seeds are planted in good heart soil, end quote. What's more, God rules with justice and goodness, his power lights up the wide world, he backfills us with joy. The psalmist asks, What's there left for us to do but shout praises and give thanks? What's there to worry about with God on the throne who's quote, done it all, has set everything right, end quote, and keeps those who love him safe. Walking with God isn't rocket science, it's simple science. I hold up my empty cup and ask him to fill it up. You can find the source of light and joy by opening your heart to him. Prayer. God, I'm tempted to look within and feel discouraged rather than to look at you and be amazed. Thank you for these words today and the seeds you sow in me. Keep tending me. In Jesus' name, so be it. From Proverbs 14, 10 to 11. The one who avoids a friend because of their calamity will be avoided during their celebrations. Foolish living leaves you languishing in an empty hole, while right living builds a palace to live in. Passages in Judges, Luke, Psalms, and Proverbs are selected for today in the yearly Bible. This is Eve de Bartle Laban, Roebuck.