Joy in Him

James 4:9-10 says “⁹Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. ¹⁰Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up..

”In this world there are many things that try to take us away from Him. Money, possessions, entertainment, and even people, strive to bring our attention to them instead of to Him. Put more clearly, our lust for them draws us closer to them and away from God. Money, possessions, and entertainment can do nothing on their own, but our own evil desires draw us away, we lust for them, and are tempted (James 1:14).

But we should not take joy in things of this world. The source of our joy, if it is temporal and earthly, will vanish quickly. But if we draw our joy from God, we will never lack, for from God comes an overwhelming amount of joy! A joy that is not temporal, but a joy that will last forever!

James therefore exhorts that we mourn and weep, that we humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord, for then He will lift us up. This first exhortation, if taken out of context, seems strange, and you can quite easily pull an incorrect doctrine from it. But when taken in context, you can see that James is speaking of things of this world versus heavenly things. James is not telling us to be melancholy, at least in the way it sounds. He is exhorting us to not take joy in things of this world, but to humble ourselves - cleanse ourselves in God’s sight, for then He shall lift us up.

It is still not too clear what James is encouraging us to do. He is saying that we should not take joy in things of this world – we should not seek for joy in entertainment, money, or possessions – but we should be seeking joy in Him by humbling ourselves before God. And when we do that, we will find a joy that we have never found before, a joy that will never fail or vanish away as long as we are in Christ.

Therefore I encourage you, take joy not in the things of this world, but take joy in Christ! Start your day in His word and end your day with His word. In your free time, or not so free time, when you seek for joy, happiness, and relaxation, don’t take your joy from things of this world, for they provide only a temporal, thin, and brief happiness. Instead, use that time to dive into His word, speak with Him, draw your joy from Him; for remember, the joy that comes from Him is true, overflowing, and lasts forever.