Holding to Truth

holding to truth in love for the building up of the Body of Christ

How to Restore the Joy in Your Christian Life (Part II)

Get the joy back in your Christian life.

In Part I, we mentioned the first step to getting your joy back—love the Lord Jesus.

After thinking about this some more, I realized this might be difficult to do. If our joy is missing, our love is probably missing too.

There is a simple step that deserves mentioning before going on. To reclaim our love for the Lord, we must confess our sins.

Luke 7:47 says,

“…Her sins which are many are forgiven, because she loved much; but to whom little is forgiven, he loves little.”

When we confess our sins, we realize how sinful we are. We are also forgiven. Then, according to the verse above, we will love the Lord Jesus very much.

But there’s still something more…

The Master

The second story in Matthew 25 is about a man who was going on a trip. He was particularly wealthy and had several slaves.  He entrusted each slave with various parts of his fortune “according to his own ability” and left. He gave them no instruction about what to do with this money.

But they knew what he wanted—investment. The unspoken command was to use the money to make a profit.

When the man returned, his slaves had met with varying degrees of success. Two of them had doubled their initial investment. The master was very pleased. To each of these, the master said,

“…Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful over a few things; I will set you over many things. Enter into the joy of your master.” (Matthew 25:21)

One, however, had not invested the money at all, and even though he returned the entirety of the sum, the master punished him. The least he could have done was to deposit the sum into a bank account. At least he could have made some interest, but he failed to do so.

This story is a picture of another facet of our relationship with Christ. He is not only our Bridegroom. He is also our Master. Like the slaves in the story, we each have been entrusted with a “fortune” according to our ability. As part of our salvation, we have been given different gifts. These gifts equip us to accomplish whatever the Lord intends us to accomplish.

The reward for those who “invest”, or use, their gift is to…

“Enter into the joy of your master.”

The reward is not heaven. It is not celestial real estate. It is not material prosperity.

It is joy.

To get our joy back, we need to “invest” our gift. Whatever work our Master has given us, we need to use our gift to make a profit for Him. It’s not my place to tell you what the Master intends for you to accomplish. You have to ask Him.

It could be preaching the gospel to your family or colleagues. It could be participating in child care during your Sunday morning meeting. It could be visiting some sick or backslidden brother or sister in the church.

Whatever it is, you have a gift. You are fully equipped. Don’t settle for a joyless Christian life. Confess your sins, love the Lord, use your gift, and “enter into the joy of your Master.”

For more on maintaining our joy, check out this video on YouTube: (The Joy of Salvation)

 

About Clark Russell

Clark Russell is a guest contributor for Holding to Truth. You can read more of his posts at http://www.clarkruss.wordpress.com.

5 Replies

  1. Clark, thanks for covering both sides – confessing sins to be washed from them and investing what the Lord has given us (even if it seems we don’t have anything). We usually think that only when we are full of joy can we speak the Lord to others. I often thought this until one day I saw what the Lord said in Mark 16:14-15, “And afterward He appeared to the eleven as they were reclining at table, and He reproached their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen. And He said to them, Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to all the creation.” While the disciples were in poor condition, the Lord said “Go and proclaim”! Lord, speak to us in this way!

    1. I never saw that before in Mark. That’s really encouraging!

  2. Joana

    Amen. Lord, restore the joy in our Christian lives

  3. Collin Wang

    Jesus is Lord. Letting Him be the Lord in life is a process which requires being grouped with persons in Christ just as Daniel was to fully experience His salvation & transforming work issuing in this Love, Joy, & Peace.

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