The Secret for Growing Joy

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our heavenly Father.

Do you sometimes feel that your life is not leading anywhere? Have you wondered how your life can be more purposeful and meaningful? If you would like to know the secret for how to enjoy your life to the fullest, then join me as we explore God’s recipe for joy.

First, we must start off by acknowledging two important realities:

That God created us for fellowship with himself. Apart from fellowship with him, there is no true, fulfilling and lasting joy in life.
That because we are sinful, it is only through the sacrifice of Jesus do we have access to true fellowship with our holy and perfect God.

We reinforce these realities here each Sunday as we approach God through our Lord Jesus Christ: When we confess our sins and accept his forgiveness and as we then celebrate our fellowship with God, enjoy his presence and feast on his words of grace to us. Christian worship is foundational for a life of joy. Through it God establishes his relationship with us and he sets the pattern for us to experience his presence and joy in our daily life.

Our relationship with God is an organic reality; it is something that is able to grow and flourish. As we grow closer to God, so also does our joy in life grow and flourish. When we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we will be asking for God to come closer to us. In the second petition we will say, “Thy kingdom come.”

What does it mean to pray for God’s kingdom to come? Luther writes in his Small Catechism that “God’s kingdom comes when our heavenly Father gives us his Holy Spirit, so that by his grace we believe his holy word and lead godly lives here in time and there in eternity.” As you can see, God’s kingdom is present wherever there are people who trust his word and promise. There God is found and there he establishes a relationship with his people. It is a kingdom created by his word and which exists among us through faith in that word.

In the parable we heard in our Gospel lesson, Jesus teaches us an important aspect about that relationship, one we must understand in order to capitalize on God’s kingdom growth in our own lives.

Jesus said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scattered seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain…” (Mark 4:26-28)

This is the first principle you must understand. You cannot produce real happiness for yourself. It is something only God can do for you. Your relationship with God is something that grows all by itself. There is nothing you can do to make it grow faster. All you can do is what the farmer does with the seed. Plant it, water it and wait.

God has given you the seeds for joy. These are found in his word. As you read his word, as you come to hear his word and receive his sacrament, you allow those seeds to be planted in you. Once the seed is planted, all you can do is wait. Wait and trust God’s word to produce what he promises. Joy. Joy and kingdom growth. Again, this kingdom growth cannot be created or manipulated by anything we can do.

However, there is a lot that we can do to prevent it from growing. In fact, there are a lot of things each of us do every day that restrict or hinder that growth from taking place. That is why it will be profitable for us to know what those obstacles are that we allow to enter into our lives and which stunt our spiritual growth and kill our capacity for joy. Anything that compromises our trust in God and his promises for us is such an obstacle.

There are two kinds of obstacles to kingdom growth:

1. The first is an attitude that believes that kingdom growth depends on me—on what I can do. For example, the belief that my spiritual growth depends on how faithfully I come to church or obey God’s commands. What is wrong with this attitude is that it credits me for causing spiritual growth, instead of giving glory to God. Such misplaced glory can only result in two equally bad scenarios: That I either become conceited and hypocritical about my supposed spiritual fruit, or that I end up despairing when I realize how miserably I have failed to live up to God’s love for me. So the first obstacle for growth is living as if I am responsible for producing kingdom growth and joy for myself. There is no joy in doing that.

2. The second kind of obstacle to kingdom growth is an attitude that holds others responsible for my experience of joy. That happens when I expect the church, the pastor, a Christian friend or a family member, to be responsible for my relationship with God. While these all certainly play important roles in our spiritual lives, they do not produce the growth. Such an attitude that fails to give God the glory due him will end up blaming others when we realize that we have not grown spiritually. So we become spiritual crybabies.

The proper attitude is one that puts full trust in God for effecting kingdom growth. It means that we fully trust that he is able to fulfill what he promises. It means to keep on believing in his promise that he is at work in and through us, even when we do not yet see the fruit of his work. This attitude is crucial for enjoying a meaningful life.

Let me give you an example from everyday life: If you are married, it will be good for you to remember the vows you made to your spouse, as well as the promise God gave you to bless you and your marriage if you keep those vows. Specifically, if you are a husband, you promise to love your wife even as Christ loves you. And if you are a wife you promise to entrust yourself to your husband, even as you fully trust in Christ. (cf. Ephesians 5:22-33)

In my own marriage, I know that I’ve still got a lot of work to do to love my wife as Christ has loved me. But I can tell you that when I do make an effort to love my wife, not just because she is so lovable, but because of the promise I made to her before God, then I really begin to feel God’s kingdom coming to me and my excitement and joy growing. I experience this even before I get to see her reaction to what I have done. That’s because I know that I have done it for God and that he is pleased with me.

As you can see, my joy no longer depends on what others say or do. It comes from knowing that I have just experienced God at work in me, growing his kingdom. I have allowed his word to bear fruit in my life. In obeying the Lord, I have not so much done something for my wife, but for God. And that is what gives meaning to my life: To see God fulfilling his purposes for me and for his people in the world, in and through me.

What is true about marriage also applies to your job. When you work conscientiously, even when your boss is not watching you, you are working not just for your boss or your company but for the Lord. In that way, you will not only earn a material reward, but also a spiritual reward: You will have an experience of joy. (cf. Ephesians 6:5-8, Colossians 3:22-24).

In fact, whatever we do in life, we do it for the Lord. Then we will receive a double blessing. So let God do his work as you faithfully serve him in everything you do, waiting patiently for his word of promise to grow and bear fruit in your life. This is the secret for seeing God’s kingdom grow among you and to experience joy for life: And not just for this life, but for eternity.

Now may the grace of God the Father and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit keep your hearts in perfect peace through Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.