Joy is NOT from Man

“⁶There are many who say, ‘Who will show us some good?

Lift up the light of your face upon us, O LORD!’

⁷You have put more joy in my heart

than they have when their grain and wine abound.”

— Psalm 4:6-7 (ESV)

I wrote about joy coming with God and this morning I was trying to find the right words as I as thought about the above verses. I read something similar to joy coming with God, only it does not sit the same with me as it did earlier.

As I look this morning, I see that God gives joy, it does not just abound with Him. I receive joy from Him not just experience it in my relationship with Him.

When I write it, there is something that hits me just so. I am thankful to have those in my life that bring me happiness (Lori, Bryson, Aarron), but it is the joy that I receive from God that makes those in my life that much more important. I now can see them in the light that I want to work to bring them happiness. I want to bring them what God has given to me. I want to be the one that serves them to the point that they are able to experience the joy that is given by the LORD for themselves.

I have to be careful in the way I write and the message that I am bringing. I do not want anyone to think that it is I that is bringing joy, it is not. Notice the words I wrote above. I want to “bring them happiness” and “what God has given”. I am not in the business of bringing joy. I am but a man and can only bring you to the one, GOD, who can give you joy. I can only bring you to Him so that you have an opportunity to receive that joy He has to give.

Man cannot bring or provide joy. As I mentioned in my other writing about joy coming with God, “Yes, I can find monetary good fortune and satisfy worldly desires in other places, but those are fleeting and only provide in the moment.” Anything that man can provide is only for the moment and as soon as the moment is gone, so is the feeling had. That which God gives is eternal.

Where do you believe you are receiving joy? Are you really finding the lasting joy in your life in what you get from man? What if you accepted the joy that comes only from God and allowed Him to continue fill you with it in all?