Day 4. Joy.

Psalm 86:4
Bring joy to your servant,
for to you, O Lord,
I lift up my soul.

That first part is weird. "Bring joy to your servant." I usually don't think servants are joyful. Oh unless they're in movies and they're big black ladies, you know what I'm talking about? They always say stuff like, "Bless yo heart child" or something like that.Ok I hope no one got offended from that first part. But in all seriousness, sometimes I look at the Bible at guys like Paul or the apostles or even Jesus and wonder, were these guys even happy? I mean, these are the ultimate servants right?

I know joy isn't necessarily happiness, but sometimes I look at all the crap they went through and the Bible never mentions them laughing or anything. These guys have nothing; they're homeless, they go from house to house, they get thrown in jail, and ultimately, they die horrible deaths for their faith. Is there joy in that lifestyle?

This may be bad news to you, but I believe that we're called to a similar way of life. For some odd reason, I don't think Jesus was lying when he said "it is hard for the rich to get into heaven." (Mat. 19:23) And for some reason, I think he meant it when he told his followers to leave their families (Mat. 10:37), their lives (Lk. 9:23), and their money (Lk.12:33) to follow him. I admit that so much of my joy and happiness comes from money, clothes, TV, people, etc. We get glimpses of real joy when we worship, but that true, everlasting, unwavering joy seems to evade us. If Jesus is in charge, then we servants might find that true joy if we listen and act.

I'm afraid that my dreams of a nice house in the suburbs, a good-looking family, a nice wardrobe, and a good-paying job are in jeopardy if I choose to take the Gospel seriously. It essentially comes down to, do I trust God enough to give me that joy if I truly obey as his servant...

Do you trust God enough to truly follow him?