In the economy of God there are certain spiritual laws that I believe are always the case. Today, I would like to talk about the relationship between glory and joy. The spiritual law between glory and joy can be stated as follows: “When we obey God and do His will, God gets the glory, and we get the joy.” Throughout Scripture we see that this relationship between God’s glory and our joy is always the case. Below are just three examples that highlight this spiritual law.
One example can be found in the Beatitudes from (Matthew 5) and (Luke 6). Here we see how being persecuted for the sake of Christ and the gospel glorifies God and brings us amazing joy. (Luke 6:22-23) describes it this way: “Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their ancestors treated the prophets.”
Whenever we are willing to be persecuted for standing up for Jesus and sharing the gospel, God is pleased and His name is glorified. But notice the blessing we receive: we are told to “leap for joy,” not only because we are pleasing in the sight of the Lord, but we can expect a great reward in heaven!
A second example can be seen in the book of James. (James 1:2-4) tells us: “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”
Trials are one of the ways we can bring God glory because when we persevere through them and realize they are both for our benefit, and have a divine purpose, we put a smile on God’s face and glorify His name. In this example we are told that we can experience, “pure joy,” because the end result in going through the trial is that we will lack nothing. And by the way when we do go through a trial we can help God advance His kingdom here on earth as people see how we trust our awesome God not only in the good times but in the difficult ones as well.
And one final example can be found in (Acts 5). Here we see that the apostles were severely persecuted for sharing the message of the gospel. For we read:
“Then the high priest and all his associates, who were members of the party of the Sadducees, were filled with jealousy. They arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail. But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail and brought them out. ‘Go, stand in the temple courts,’ he said, ‘and tell the people all about this new life.’ At daybreak they entered the temple courts, as they had been told, and began to teach the people.” (Acts 5:17-21). We then further read: “‘We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name,’ he said. ‘Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man’s blood.’ Peter and the other apostles replied: ‘We must obey God rather than human beings!’” (Acts 5:28-29).
After this the Sanhedrin had the apostles flogged and commanded them to no longer speak in the name of Jesus. Then we read the exciting part: “The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name. Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah.” (Acts 5:41-42).
Once again, Jesus was glorified by the apostles proclaiming the gospel and as a result they came away “rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name.”
In all three of these examples, Jesus being glorified, is followed by His children receiving great joy. If I had to put this spiritual law into a formula, I think it would be: Our obedience = God’s glory and our joy. So, the next time you find it difficult to obey the Lord just remember the incredible twin blessing you will receive – being the instrument to glorify God, and the recipient of awesome joy!