How to Have More Joy in One Day Than in a Lifetime – by Eliezer Gonzalez

Nov 13, 2015 2319

Full of joyWhy is everyone hungry for more? “More, more,” they say.

“More, more.”

I have God’s more-than-enough,

More joy in one ordinary day 

Than they get in all their shopping sprees.

At day’s end I’m ready for sound sleep,

For you, God, have put my life back together.

– Psalm 4: 6–8, The Message

I was recently struck by this paraphrase of Psalm 4. Other translations talk about God giving his people “greater joy” than the joy of those who are always grasping for more material things, and when they apparently prosper in this world.

Greater joy? Who doesn’t want greater joy? I do!

What is this joy that transcends all that is worldly and all that is material? What is this joy that can survive everything?

This joy can’t be the world’s joy. The world around me is satisfied with a good shopping spree, as the paraphrase says, or with a big car and an even bigger house. Those things don’t satisfy me any more. I want greater joy!

This joy that is not the world’s joy can only be the joy of Christ himself. This greater joy is simply the joy of Christ himself.

These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. – John 15:11, NKJV

This is the joy of knowing that Christ is yours and your are his, that through Christ you are acceptable and accepted by God for ever. It is the joyful certainty of knowing that God is your Father of Love – right now, whatever you may be going through – and it is the joy of knowing that God will always make sure that you have not only what you need, but what is best, for ever and ever, world without end.

How marvellous it is to know that the Wonderful One, who came to this earth to share all things with us, even shares his joy with his redeemed children!

Read the whole of Psalm 4; it’s just eight verses. It tells you that God is near you when you call to him. It tells you to put your trust in Him.

My wish for you is a day full of greater joy than most people would hope for in a lifetime, and then tonight, as the ending of the Psalm says,

In peace will I lie down and sleep, for you alone, LORD, make me dwell in safety. – Psalm 4:8.

– Eliezer Gonzalez

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