Have you ever sat back and realized that since joy is a by-product of obedience to God that it stands to reason that the more we submit and surrender our will to Jesus the more joy we will be able to experience. As I have shared in several past devotions on joy there seems to be an inverse relationship between trials and suffering for the sake of the gospel and joy.
In short the greater the trial the greater the capacity we have to receive joy. The Scriptures are pretty clear on this point. For example, we read: “Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified…” (1 Peter 4:12-14). We also read: “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” (James 1:2-4). And (Matthew 5:11-12) tells us: “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
For you see the more we submit to God and make His will our will the closer we draw to Jesus. When we surrender our will to advancing the kingdom of God we can expect to receive great joy. For example, I am reminded here of the parable of the talents from the book of Matthew. I love what we read in (Matthew 25:20-21): “So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, ‘Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents besides them.’ His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’” Imagine how awesome it is to enter into “the joy of the Lord.”
Submitting and surrendering our lives to Jesus is the gateway to floods of endless joy. Billy Graham shared this important insight about surrendering to God when he stated: “Jesus expects one hundred percent surrender, and when that is accomplished He rewards a thousandfold.”1 And one of the rewards we receive, in great abundance, is the joy of the Lord.
I would like to close with some quotes for you to meditate on to help you to consider why surrendering everything to Christ is the best decision you can ever make with your time, your talents, and your treasury.2
“Surrendering to Christ is like signing your name to a blank check and letting the Lord put in the amount.” ― Billy Graham
“May not a single moment of my life be spent outside the light, love and joy of God’s presence and not a moment without the entire surrender of myself as a vessel for Him to fill full of His Spirit and His love.” ― Andrew Murray
“The man or woman who is wholly or joyously surrendered to Christ can’t make a wrong choice – any choice will be the right one.” ― A.W. Tozer
“If we will only surrender ourselves utterly to the Lord, and will trust Him perfectly, we shall find our souls ‘mounting up with wings as eagles’ to the ‘heavenly places’ in Christ Jesus, where earthly annoyances or sorrows have no power to disturb us.” ― Hannah Whitall Smith
1 Inspirational Quotes on Surrender (bibleportal.com)
2 All of the following quotes are from the website below: