Always be joyful. Keep on praying. No matter what happens, always be thankful, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
It sounds a bit like a command – “Always Be Joyful.” And life is quick to point out there are an awful lot of times when joy feels far away. Joy all the time sounds fantastic, but we just can’t muster it up. So we feel disappointed, like we’ve missed out on something we could have if we could just do this “Christianity thing” right.
The problem is we’ve mistaken happiness for joy, and we’ve lost out on what our hearts need the most. Happiness depends on what’s happening. Joy is soul satisfaction in Christ. We miss out on the fullness, on the contentment that a relationship with Christ offers, because we think we should always feel happy, and we don’t. But God knows if this life was all so good that we automatically felt “joy” all the time, we wouldn’t need to keep on praying.
“Keep on praying” recognizes that we won’t always feel happy, that our circumstances often pull our hearts away from the joy God wants us to have and that He offers us in Christ. God wants us to turn to Him, not away from Him, with our hurts and disappointments. We wouldn’t need to keep presenting our hopes and longings to God if things were the way they were supposed to be. We only need hope for what we don’t have. Faith is the confidence that gets us through until our hopes are fulfilled.
It’s God’s will – His desire and intention – that those who belong to Christ Jesus be eternally satisfied with Him. We’re soul-stuffed. We have more than enough. And we know that God will redeem and restore us to the good we were meant to be, to the happiness we were meant to have. Joy is deep and abiding because no matter what happens, we are beloved by God, who is making all things new. This is the source of our thanksgiving.