True Joy

This is a devotion I wrote for the student ministry I intern for here in Clarksville. I figure I will also post it here since I've gotten a little lazy at late with the new semester starting and all.


“But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy, and spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may exult in you. For you bless the righteous, O LORD; you cover him with favor as with a shield.” Psalm 5:11-12

A picture is painted in these verses, as well as the full Psalm of David that they are contained in, and that picture is a life of joy. “But let all who take refuge in you rejoice,” that statement, in and of itself, is an amazing description of what we have in Christ. In Him we rejoice and have joy in life.

Throughout time, we have always had the instinct to search for something more in life. Specifically in today’s culture, we have continually searched for joy and happiness in money, fame, recognition, power, and so much else. We search high and low for something to fulfill our lives, but time and time again we have been let down or pushed aside and eventually are back at square one. The problem we have run into is that we are always eventually unfulfilled in our own efforts.

I remember during my junior year of high school I had a substitute teacher in chemistry one day. As the class went on that day I became increasingly frustrated by his, for lack of a better word, “preaching” of “success and money equal happiness” to our class. It was a bit ironic in my mind though. I couldn’t figure out where he was in his own plan, being a substitute teacher as a relatively older man. The problem I had with what he was saying was that so many times I’ve seen that way of life fail people, yet others keep on trying.

One of my favorite quotes, one that I’ve had posted on my facebook for about a year now, is by C. S. Lewis. In it Lewis says this, “God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.” The truth of the matter is that, apart from God, we are miserable. In all of our failed attempts at happiness we are miserable. Without God there is no reason in life, but with God, through Christ, we find meaning. “But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy,” I can’t not say that with anything but joy in my voice because of Christ in me. There is nothing apart from God that will fulfill our lives.

So take refuge, and rejoice, even when times seem rough we have the true bringer of joy.