How to Have A Joyful Life
If you ask people what they want out of life, they will tell you that they just want to be happy. I wonder this means. Think about a moment. What makes you happy? Personally, all the things that make me happy are dependent on other people, and other things that are often beyond my control. For example, I love watching my favorite sports teams play ball. But, I’m only really happy when they win. My happiness is conditional. I’m happy spending time with my family, however, it’s no picnic in paradise when all six kids are complaining, whining, and fighting. Again, my happiness is conditional. As a general rule, people are happy when things are going their way and they get frustrated when things are beyond their control. That’s why it is more important to lead a joyful life rather than a happy life.
Joy is not conditional but is a wonderful byproduct of the Christian faith rooted in trust in God. Joy is something that can last forever and it is directly related to amount of our lives that we turn over to Christ. Christian joy is the internal satisfaction that we get when we are confident that God is in control of everything. Joy trusts God to guide us for our own good and for His glory. Our only true source of joy is God because everything else disappoints. Only God can be trusted, only God can deliver all the time, and only God is dependable. Everything else is temporal and is subject to failure. Christian joy is an inner peace and is our personal strength. The prophet Nehemiah (8:10) writes, “The joy of the Lord is your strength.” St. Peter of Damaskos reflects on Psalm 77:3, “I remembered God, and rejoiced,” and explains that Christian joy depends on our relationship with God. When we focus on Him, we forget about the afflictions of this world and place our hope in Him. Joy is having the right relationship with God through Jesus Christ. It is living an obedient life in Christ and experiencing the “inner peace” of the Holy Spirit. Joyful living is the fruit of the highest form of Christian existence.
Today I want to explore the Epistle of Joy from St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians 4:4-9 and learn the four ways that we can have a joyful life.
First Way to Have a Joyful Life – Live in Moderation, Gentleness and Forbearance
We cannot enjoy God’s inner peace and receive His joy unless we live graciously. The Greek word, epiekes is translated as “gentle spirit” or forbearance. It means that we are tolerant of others; it can also mean that we are gracious. Gentleness is exhibiting generosity, tolerance, friendliness, and charity to people that fail us and forgiveness and leniency to those who wrong us. This gracious humility is learning to be content when we are mistreated, suffer injustice, or are persecuted. It is the opposite of self-love. In today’s society, we want revenge and “pop off” when we are wronged. We quickly anger and these “hot” emotions demonstrate our soul’s depravity. Angry feelings upset the soul, they rob us of our inner peace and joy, and shift our focus from serving God to satisfying our wounded ego. I understand that it’s hard to have forbearance in our world especially during rush hour on Atlanta’s freeways. That’s why we must live in gentleness and moderation. We cannot let our negative thoughts get the best of us. Fortunately, St. Paul conveniently reminds us that God is near. He is watching us and is near enough to encourage, strengthen, and help us through our trials. God is also near enough to hold us accountable for our actions. For example, school children are generally well behaved when their teacher is present. What happens, however, when the teacher steps out for a moment and the children are left in the classroom alone? Chaos ensues. Troublemaking kids seize control and take over because the teacher is not there to hold them directly accountable for their actions. Even though we are God’s children, let’s not be like young children who are left alone. Our Lord is near and sees all our actions. Therefore, let us receive His love, His encouragement, and His peace so that we are guided by His gentle Spirit rather than by our self-determination. Remember this the next time you are in heavy traffic.
Second Way to Have a Joyful Life – Don’t Worry
Most of us have come to the conclusion that worrying and anxiety are part of life. For example, it’s common that people discuss their “meds” and other treatments used to calm them down during the day. Hypertension and high blood pressure are external signs that we are stressed out and can’t cope because things are out of control. Instead of enjoying the fruits of a victorious, inspiring Christian life, we dwell on all the things that can go wrong. Our anxiety blocks a joyful life because our minds are captive to troublesome thoughts. Worrying shifts our focus to personal needs, and it distracts us from serving God and others. Fortunately, our Lord wants to release us from this anxiety. St. Paul understood our tendency to worry and tells us to bring our problems to God. He uses four different terms to describe the prayers we bring to God about our needs. The first is from the Greek word proseuchi. It is used for general prayer, is found throughout the New Testament, and needs no explanation. Supplication or deesis is prayer in special times of need. Thanksgiving prayer or eucharistia looks back to previous answers to prayer where God helped in similar situations. For example, it’s something like this: “Lord, we are grateful that you look after our Atlanta Falcons each week and you helped them win three weeks ago with an important touchdown and last minute field goal when they were seven points down. Well, Lord today they are only two points behind, and we know that you helped them pull through before. Can you help us out again?” Remember these thanksgiving prayers next season. Finally, requests or aitimata are prayers that refer to specific requests for specific needs.
All of these prayers turn over our worries to God, so that He can “guard” His peace in us. St. Paul uses the military term “guard” to paint a picture that was familiar to the Philippians who were under Roman control. The word describes soldiers guarding a garrison and just as a soldiers guard a city while on duty, so God’s peace will guard and protect believers that confidently put their trust in Him. God will grant Christians a joyful life through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. His peace frees us from worry and has our best interests at stake.
Third Way to Have a Joyful Life – Think About Godly Virtues
The third way to have a joyful life is to think about godly virtues. Christians cannot enjoy a joyful life when their minds are clouded with unwholesome thoughts. Our lives are byproducts of our thoughts. We become transformed, joyful Christians when our minds are filled with virtuous thoughts. St. Ilias the Presbyter writes, “Paradise is the contemplation of intelligible realities.” St. Paul and our saints make it clear that people’s lives are the products of our minds. In Romans 12:2 we read, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” To renew our mind, St. Paul gives us a representative list of six things that believers should contemplate. Certainly, there are more, but this list is a good start. First, we are called to concentrate on whatever is true. This means that Christians should devote themselves to reading, analyzing, and also meditating on the Word of God, patristic writings, and studying the saints’ lives. Second, we are encouraged to fill our minds with honorable thoughts. These are things that are noble, dignified, and worthy of respect. Honorable thoughts from a Christian perspective are serious matters, opposed to the worldly, trivial, and temporal American Idol “chit-chat” that we discuss around the water cooler. Whatever is right describes things that are in harmony with God’s standard as revealed in Holy Scriptures. Fourth, we are to think about those things that are stainless, chaste, and pure. These thoughts are holy, moral, and undefiled. Fifth, St. Paul advises us to think about those things that are lovely. Lovely thoughts direct us so that we are sweet, gracious, and patient. Finally, when we occupy our thoughts with “whatever is of good repute” we try to imitate behaviors that are attractive in character. In other words, we want to formulate and develop a lifestyle that is highly regarded by others in the Church.
The Christian faith is more than just feeling good. It is an active exercise where we guard and nurture our intellect to engage in wholesome, godly contemplation. The key to godly living is godly thinking. Proverbs 4:23 sums this up, “Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flows the springs of life.” St. Maximos the Confessor also cautions monks to guard their intellect because when we are distracted by vices we feel resentment, become frustrated, and fall short of our spiritual goals. However, through the love of God we can put ourselves on the right track, and cut off our vices. Joyful living is achieved through godly thinking.
Fourth and Final Way to Have a Joyful Life – Obey God’s Standards for Your Life
The most important condition for living a joyful life is simply practicing what we have heard and seen. St. Paul called on the community to practice the truths they received and heard from him and other people. The Philippians witnessed his conduct firsthand and Paul stands as a living example of virtuous living. St. Paul sums this up by saying, “What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, do; and the God of peace will be with you.” The practice of doing what the Philippians have seen and heard involves repetition and is a continuous action. God’s standards are to be obeyed each and every day of our lives. His commandments and truths are to be practiced and put into practice. Just as God’s peace was given to Paul, our Lord promises that God’s peace will be given to all people that live virtuous, obedient Christian lives.
Living virtuous lives in accordance to God’s plan takes discipline and obedience. According to St. Theodoros the Great Ascetic, obedience is won by renouncing our personal desires. He points out we have three great weapons to arm ourselves with in pursuit of God’s Kingdom: faith, hope, and divine and holy love. By defending ourselves with these three swords, we will be able to “fight the good fight” and receive a “crown of righteousness.” Joy and Christian peace are received through obedience that is rooted in spiritual warfare. Ironically, when we fight temptation we are peaceful rather than agitated, calm rather than troubled, and fulfilled rather than constantly searching. Joyful living takes an active Christian faith.
Conclusion
As I close my sermon, I want to reflect that most people I know spend their whole lives chasing happiness. Chasing happiness is like herding stray cats because we find ourselves running in many directions without really achieving what we want. That’s because our happiness is conditional on external things and other people. In contrast, Christian joy is not dependent on external circumstances because it evolves from our inner being. Christian joy is not only attainable, but lasts forever when the believer is grounded in Christ. Summarizing, we have joyful lives when we: (1) live in moderation, gentleness and forbearance, (2) free ourselves from worry, (3) think about godly virtues, and (4) obey God’s standards for our lives.
Generally speaking, Christian joy means detaching ourselves from things from this world and learning to live for God. Unfortunately, most people do not trust God. They are fooled by society and like to believe that they are masters of their own destiny. Certainly, to some degree this is true since we can utilize our free will to make choices. Is this always optimal? Wouldn’t we rather get rid of our stress and anxiety and turn our lives over to Christ? By turning our lives over to Christ, we can be released from earthly cares so we can focus on gaining access to His Kingdom. Perhaps during this Holy Week, we may want to consider whether it’s time to hand over to God those things that we cannot control, so we can receive the joy and peace that comes from faithfully serving Him. Amen
