It is so frustrating to lose something.
Who hasn’t experienced the ‘Where is my phone?!!’ or “Where are my keys?!” calamity? It’s the worst when your phone is in silent mode!
Usually, we find it.
Sometimes in the most unexpected place.
Today, I stumbled upon a verse in the Bible that offers a clear place to find joy. And isn’t that something most people are looking for, usually unsuccessfully?
“I will … give you joy in my house of prayer…”Isaiah 56:7
What? It’s that easy?
You walk into a church, and you are filled with joy?
Not quite.
Jesus’s one quest from the beginning of human history has been a personal relationship with any human wanting to know him.
However, He never asks for something from us without offering far more in return.
Verse 6 shows us the road to that joy.
“And foreigners (non Jews) who bind themselves to the Lord ….These I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer…” (vs 7)
A Hebrew teacher I follow, (Chaim ben Torah, Biblical Hebrew Studies), points out that this word, ‘bind’, which is Lavah in Hebrew, could be better translated or understood as ‘intertwine’.
Intertwine creates a much clearer picture in my brain.
Something that is intertwined is difficult to separate. It has become enmeshed or even blended in some cases, it’s difficult to see where one ends and the other starts.
It reminds me of John 15:5 where Jesus talks about us abiding / living / remaining in Him and He in us.
Intertwined.
“I am the sprouting vine and you’re my branches. As you live in union with me as your source, fruitfulness will stream from within you – but when you live separated from me you are powerless.”
(The Passion Translation)
The key is the intertwining. The living in union. Abiding. Joining. However you best understand it.
Because we know that simply walking into a church doesn’t bring joy on its own.
It’s a full circle back to that relationship thing.
John 15 goes on to say in verses 10-11
“If you obey my commands (teaching) you will remain in my love …. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.”
Other places in the Bible like Psalms 16:11 support and repeat this.
A life intertwined with Jesus is where we find joy.
Well, you won’t hear that in the media.
That, my friends, has been a well-kept secret – even from people who attend church recreationally – because it isn’t about attending church.
Not even close.
It’s about having a relationship with the God who created you.
You have to ask yourself if most people are looking for happiness and haven’t found anything that works long-term – are they looking in the right places?
Explorers would launch out into the unknown. The direction most people hadn’t gone before and found things the world of that time had no idea existed.
My husband has long adhered to the idea of contrarianism. The idea that the answer you are looking for is most often found in the opposite direction of where the crowd is looking.
David must have been a contrarian too. He says in Psalms 1:1–2
“Happy are those who reject the advice of evil people. Who do not follow the example of sinners or join (there is that intertwine again!) those who have no use for God.
Instead, they find joy in obeying the law (teaching) of the Lord and they study it…”
If you have been unsuccessfully looking for happiness that lasts past the event or the moment, perhaps you’ve been looking in the wrong places.
Happiness is temporary. It takes a lot of effort to achieve and it’s short lived.
Joy on the other hand is like a baseline that makes even the roughest days better.
And where is it?
Where you might least expect to find it.
Not in church attendance but in a life intertwined with Jesus.
Dolly Parton and Zach Williams sing a song called There Was Jesus that helps me see what this looks like in my life.
Part of the lyrics go like this:
Every time I tried to make it on my own
Every time I tried to stand and start to fall
And all those lonely roads that I have travelled on
There was Jesus
When the life I built came crashing to the ground
When the friends I had were nowhere to be found
I couldn’t see it then but I can see it now
There was Jesus
In the waiting, in the searching
In the healing and the hurting
Like a blessing buried in the broken pieces
Every minute, every moment
Where I’ve been and where I’m going
Even when I didn’t know it or couldn’t see it
There was Jesus
This is the link to the music video.
