Thoughts on Tommy Newberry's book and my own personal battle this week ...
Joy is the infectious and uncontainable fruit of divinely inspired growth. It’s a deeply entrenched, unshakable belief, the result of sustained right thinking and dwelling on the nature and character of God. Joy is an outward sign of inward faith in the promises of God. It is a way of acting, and it is evidence of spiritual maturity. Joy is not a distant destination at which you arrive; rather, it’s a path you choose to travel each day. – Tommy Newberry, The 4:8 Principle, page 6
Billboards are great advertisements. They’re bright-colored, often times dramatically well lit in the dark, revive our attention span as we drive, and let us know where to find what we’re looking for on the path ahead – whether it be a gas station, a restaurant, or somewhere to stop for the night and catch up on some sleep. And, according to this statement by Tommy Newberry, that is what our joy is. It is the outside sign of inward faith, a well-lit marker showing the way to people who have yet to meet our Savior. It is proof that we believe that the news we have in Christ is in fact good! And yet, I don’t know about you, but I’ve been struggling with joy in the last few weeks. With major life change on the horizon, people calling to needle me for information about our upcoming cross-country move that I don’t even know yet, and with fear trying to muscle in on the action – maintaining joy has been a battle. And what does that prove? It proves that my inward faith in the promises of God has been lacking. It shows that I haven’t been clinging to the Word like I should. So, while I want to highly recommend The 4:8 Principle to you, while I want to provide a great month-end summary of our book-challenge for March, I think it’s more important to spend time sharing with you what God has been showing me about joy in the last few days – in case, like me, your billboard ever needs “freshening” up, or to put it more bluntly, you ever need help remembering how to be joyful.
Step 1 to Regaining Joy: BELIEVE ONLY
In another book, I’m reading right now, called The Spirit of Faith by Mark Hankins, he reminds us of the following story in the Gospels. He writes:
At the time the woman [with the issue of blood] was healed, Jesus was on teh way to the house of Jairus, the ruler of the synagogue, to pray for his daughter, who was dying. When Jesus told the woman, ‘Your faith has made you whole,’ Jairus’ servants came from his house saying, ‘Don’t trouble Jesus any longer. Your daughter is already dead.’ When Jesus heard them say that to Jairus, He gave him some vital information, ‘Fear not, only believe’ … At that moment, Jairus could have believed the bad report, gotten in fear, and given up on his miracle. But Jesus said, ‘Let me tell you what to do in this situation, fear not, only believe.’
Having just read in The 4:8 Principle, about how joy is an outward sign of an inward belief, this story really stuck with me. Only believe. Only believe. When our main focus is to believe the Word of God, instead of wasting our energy trying to be good enough, to look Christian enough, to hold all the pieces of our lives together – that’s when our life holds promise, when we find ourselves walking in joy. Think about it. For example, take a minute to think about the following verses:
- “I will set my dwelling among you and My soul will not reject you; I will be your God and you will be My people.” – Leviticus 26:11-12, New Berkeley Translation
- “The Lord, your God, is in your midst, a Mighty One who will save. He will rejoice over you with delight; He will rest you in His love; He will be joyful over you with singing.” – Zephaniah 3:17, New Berkeley
- “Those who seek the Lord shall lack in nothing good.” – Psalm 34:10, New Berkeley
- “His power at work in us can do far more than we dare ask or imagine.” – Ephesians 3:20, CEV
Now, what would our lives look like if we really believed those verses? Wouldn’t joy be the natural outcome? Who can hear that the God of the Universe is singing and dancing because He’s so delighted with us, His people, and resist a smile? Who can hear that His power at work in us is greater than we can even imagine, without wonder and awe accompanying it? Who can hear God’s promise that He will not reject us when we come to Him seeking – without being comforted and deeply satisfied with God? Believing the Word of God to be true in a genuine and powerfully personal way – this is the first step to reclaiming our joy. Perhaps it would benefit all of us to keep an emergency kit of verses like these, for the days we’ve lost our joy, to go and remind ourselves what we believe – and talk ourselves back into the will of God for us (after all, His Word does say that the joy of the Lord is our strength – Nehemiah 8:10).
Step 2 to Regaining Joy: PRAY!
John 16:24, in the 1912 Weymouth New Testament, says, “As yet you have not asked for anything in my name: ask, and you shall receive, that your hearts may be filled with gladness.” Speaking of this verse, Charles Capps writes in his book The Tongue: A Creative Force, “Prayer is your legal right to use faith-filled words to bring God on the scene in your behalf, or for another, that your joy may be full.” How cool is that? When we’re struggling to maintain our joy, we must return to the Word and refresh and rejuvenate ourselves in what we believe, and follow it up with a healthy dose of fellowship with God – not whining and complaining about what our problems are, but true prayer, prayer that accentuates the power of the Word to change things, God’s goodness to act on our behalf, and God’s glory to be exalted as we stand in faith for our answers. I’m not sure why I’ve never thought of that before, but it makes sense. Think of how much joy we experience after talking to those we love – family and friends who live far away, for example. Why shouldn’t we experience joy after talking to the God of the Universe, whose only plans for us are plans for our good, from aligning our lives with His purposes and plans and reminding ourselves what a great and mighty and powerful God we serve? Why shouldn’t we feel refreshed and rejuvenated when we’ve been in the presence of the Almighty God?
Step 3 to Regaining Joy: BE GRATEFUL!
At the end of Philippians, Paul gives the people of the church some basic instructions. Starting in verse four, he writes:
“Always be glad because of the Lord! I will say it again: Be glad. Always be gentle with others. The Lord will soon be here. Don’t worry about anything, but pray about everything. With thankful hearts offer up your prayers and requests to God” (CEV).
You see, we cannot worry and be thankful at the same time, can’t worry and experience joy at the same time. Worry will rob us of our God-given energy, joy, and purpose in life – it will stifle the life of Christ in us. So, how do we go about remedying worry-wart-ism? By purposefully being more grateful! If we purposefully fill our minds with thoughts of thanksgiving, we won’t have time to worry! We’ll be too busy praising God and thanking Him for all He’s given us! Tommy Newberry, in The 4:8 Principle writes on page 172, “You will find that your capacity for joy increases as your sense of gratitude grows.” So, how grateful are you? Or perhaps more importantly, how can you intentionally become more grateful? It’s simple! If you have this book by Tommy Newberry, look at the last chapter! He offers forty suggestions on how to become more grateful, including things like this: journaling for three minutes in the morning and three minutes before bed about all the things you are thankful for, thank God in advance for all the exciting things you believe He’s going to do in the next ten years of your life, send thank you notes to at least one person each week, itemize everything you have in one room of your house and thank God for what you’re glad to have (and get rid of the rest!), etc. This is SO simple, but when we’re battling for joy, we too often let an attitude of “I don’t feel like it” keep us from really pursuing God’s best for us in this area. We cannot afford to do that.
Step 4 to Regaining Joy: UTILIZE YOUR TALENTS!
It’s a familiar story in Matthew 25, the parable of the talents. I’ve read it probably at least a dozen times, heard it preached on numerous times, but this morning as I was reading it, something different jumped out at me than I had ever seen before. Let’s take a look at it starting in verse 19:
“After a long time the master of those servants came back and settled accounts with them. The one who had ten thousand dollars came forward and brought ten thousand dollars more, saying, ‘Master, you entrusted to me ten thousand dollars; look, I have gained these other ten thousand.’ His master said to him, ‘Welld one, good and faithful servant, you were trustworthy in a little, I will appoint you over much. SHARE THE HAPPINESS OF YOUR MASTER.’ Then the one with four thousand dollars came and said, ‘Master, you handed me four thousand dollars; see, I have gained four thousand dollars more.’ The master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were trustworthy in a little, I will appoint you over much. SHARE THE HAPPINESS OF YOUR MASTER. But the one who had received two thousand dollars also came forward and said, ‘Master, knowing you, that you are a harsh man, reaping where you never sowed and gathering where you did not winnow, I was in fear; so I went and buried the two thousand dollars in the ground; here you have what is yours.’ His Master replied to him, ‘Despicable and lazy slave! … Throw the useless slave into the outside darkness; there will be weeping and grinding of teeth there.’”
Notice that to the first two, the Master (i.e. God the Father) said to them, “Share in the happiness of your master,” but the last one was left on the outside, in sadness. Only the two who were willing to creatively risk, to utilize their skills to further the Kingdom of God – those were the ones who experienced joy. As I was reading this this morning, I was struck by how selfish my sadness is. When I am sad, I am not sharing my talents with others, not investing in the Kingdom of God in a real and vibrant way. No – when I am sad and disgruntled with life, I am burying things in the ground, not moving from home, living in fear as the third slave. I cannot share the happiness of my King unless I am creatively seeking ways to further the Kingdom with the talents He has given me – and neither can you.
So, how do we fight the battle for joy?
1. We spend time in the Word – believing only, stirring up our faith in our Almighty God.
2. We pray and spend time before the Lover of our Souls, encouraging ourselves in His love for us.
3. We practice being excessively grateful for all He has done for us! Who could get depressed when rehearsing all the ways God has been good to them?
4. We utilize our talents and gifts for the glory of God, creatively bursting out of our comfort zone for the exhilaration of living in the center of His plan.
Good luck, my friends, as you battle for joy. I pray you’ll be as blessed by in the battle as I have been.
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