Ambition without the joy of the Lord is merely self-imposed slavery. King David, the most famous of God’s lyricists penned these lines of exaltation:
“I delight to do Your will, O my God;
Your Law is within my heart” (Psalm 40:8).
The Christian’s sense of joy is their inner barometer. When the storms of life descend upon us and our otherwise happy demeanour is knocked off course, it is those things which bring us delight that will give us direction.
However, if those things are merely avenues of physical, mental, or emotional escape, then, like a seaman who refuses to be tested and trained by the storm, we will eventually be overcome.
Instead, the delight of the Christian is anchored upon the hope of him who waits at our destination. All the while we understand that this heavenward focus draws resistance from dissenters. But Jesus assures us that this opposition to the Faith need not rob us of our joy:
“Rejoice and be glad when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me” (Matthew 5:11).
It is a given that joy and gladness are not natural responses to persecution. In fact, people who get their thrills from drawing opposition to themselves have issues that need not be attributed to faith in Jesus.
The disciple of Christ, on the other hand, can find joy and gladness in persecution, “because great is your reward in heaven” (Matthew 5:12).
The believer who spends year upon year wondering at the joylessness of his Christian experience need look no further than the direction to which he has set his face. Though Lot was a holy man, his ambitions were directed toward in the wealth of Sodom; there he found only torment (2 Peter 2:8).
Conversely, we have set our faces towards that which delights our souls; there our Saviour waits.
John Staiger