You are most like God when you are full of his joy.
SHAUNA: Hi, this is Shauna on Joni Eareckson Tada: Sharing Hope. And Joni, would you say that God is happy?
JONI: He sure is Shauna, and we know that God is happy because of 1 Timothy 1:11 it calls him the blessed God. And in that verse, scholars use the word blissful for blessed. God is full of bliss; he’s overflowing with joy. He is radiant and happy with rapturous delight. The God of the Bible is not a threatened, pacing deity who is starving for attention. He is not moody, easily angered, touchy, out of sorts on bad days. However, there was a time I thought he was like that; way back when, my idea of a righteous God – well, if I didn’t measure up to his law, then was I in trouble! It meant God was to be appeased; when it came to any rebellion on my part, I reasoned he was easily angered, touchy, and emotionally unstable [especially if he caught me toying with sin]. Like, “What? What are you doing? Get back here in the sheepfold right now!” I never shared these thoughts with anyone. And given that I grew up in a Christian family, I don’t even know where I got them.
Maybe it was because of my diving accident. I didn’t know a lot about God’s sovereignty back then, but I took it to mean that he was the one who shoved me off the raft and into the water. I figured he was angry with me because that last year of high school I was willfully sinning against him. And I knew I was doing wrong. Honestly, I assumed that God finally got fed up with my misbehavior; he had warned me too many times, and now? I was going to have to pay for it. God had put up with enough from me. And, boy, was he mad! But the truth is, even that last year in high school before my diving accident when I was stuck in sin, he wasn’t biting his nails or blowing his stack. No, God was for me. God the Father sent his Spirit to urge me, empower me, and guide me up out of sin. He is constantly availing his power to me. Jesus, my Savior right now, is praying for me.
And this is why the good news is so great. Because if we are in trouble, God had better not be. If we’re miserable, it would do us no good to go to someone else who’s miserable. If we are angry, it does no good to go to a God who, in turn, is angry with us! Believe me, that’s not the God of the Bible at all.
People in deep distress need to reach out and find a strong, secure, and happy anchor. And God is just that: he is joyful. He’s the joyful foundation, the glad tower, he’s a blissful rock, an effervescent fountain, a happy fortress. When we fall and stumble into sin, or when we willfully transgress in stubborn disobedience, it does not throw God’s nose out of joint. We never need to worry about whether he got up on the wrong side of the bed only to face us with an angry growl. Nothing we do can disturb the blessedness of God—we will always find him full of compassion and tender mercies. We will always find him ready to rescue us when we are in trouble. When we find ourselves struggling against temptation or sin, God’s Spirit is more than glad to infuse us with his mighty strength.
Jesus had in mind joy and happiness when he said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit [That is, happy are those who know they cannot deal with sin and temptation on their own] …” Such people are divinely favored; they are smiled upon. We are most like God when we are full of his joy. And that happens as we turn to our happy God who is always delighted to help us turn away from sin.
© Joni and Friends