In whom or what do we place our joy? Where do we expect to find it?

Is it family, friends, work, hobbies?

It’s a question that needs answered, I think. Because where we seek our joy is the place where our heart resides. It’s our focus, our dedication, our motivation.

Because this morning was quiet and I had no where to be, I decided to open my Bible and read a few psalms. I stopped at Psalm 4:6-7 (ESV):

There are many who say, “Who will show us some good? Lift up the light of your face upon us Oh LORD!

You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound.

I particularly like the second verse. David seems to be making a comparison to the joys of God verses the joys of prosperity, and that God’s joy is far more abundant than material wealth.

It’s easy to forget that, though. We live in a world where, for the most part, we are to pursue the material over the spiritual. After all, how can we expect to feed ourselves and our family if we have no money with which to accomplish it?

Society also demands we compare our own prosperity (or lack thereof) to others’. We are not seen as successful or even able to participate in said society if we don’t have the right car, house, or even electronic gadgets.

Or worse, we are seen as lazy, perhaps even deluded or insane if we tell people that material success is nothing compared to when God smiles down upon us.

But we must also be wise in not comparing our own spiritual prosperity to the spiritual poverty of others. Instead, just as Jesus said we must take care of the poor, to share our material abundance with those who have less, our other, and dare I say, more important, duty is to share and take care of people’s spiritual poverties. That way, they also may gain and seek more of God’s joy and care less and less for their “grain and wine.”

Or as Peter said in 1 Peter 3:15 (ESV): but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect… (Emphasis mine)

God doesn’t care if our clothes are rags, if our house is small and a bit rundown, if our electronic devices are a few years older than everyone else’s, or if our car needs new tires and the windshield has a few cracks in it.

Or even if we have none of those things.

He cares about the heart and where we put our focus, which is in Jesus and only Jesus. Because that is where our only true joy comes from, and it can never breakdown or grow old and useless. It is, in fact, eternal, long after the grain has molded, and the wine turns to vinegar.