Where is your joy?
NOVEMBER 29—BLACK FRIDAY, DAY AFTER THANKSGIVING, 2018
Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation. Habakkuk 3:17-18
In Habakkuk’s day, there was an economic recession. There were no cows in the barn, no harvest in the fields. “Yet…” he writes. Oh, how I love that “yet” in verse 18. “Yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation.”
Where was his joy? In the Lord, not circumstances.
If circumstances are what give you your joy, you can’t say “rejoice always,” because circumstances change. You might lose your job, your health, your friends, or your prestige. But Habakkuk said, “Yet will I joy in the God of my salvation.”
There’s one way to find out where you’re getting your joy. If it’s from your job, if you lose your job, see if you still have joy. If it’s from your health, if your health fails, see if you still have joy.
It’s not wrong to joy in your health, your job, your friends. But that kind of joy can be threatened. The only eternal joy anyone can have is in the Lord, because He never changes. “Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today and forever” Hebrews 13:8. If you get your joy anywhere else, it could be lost.. You need a joy which supersedes that. “Thou will show me the path of life; in Thy presence is fullness of joy” Psalm 16:11.
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