Restored Joy

Restored Joy

Oh, give me back my joy again; you have broken me—now let me rejoice. Restore to me again the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you. –Psalm 51:8, 12

I tried to share my M&M’s with a friend at yesterday’s middle school wrestling match, but she had spent the afternoon trying on pants. And every woman knows there’s nothing like spending a few hours trying on clothes to make you want to watch what you eat and hit the gym. In the mirrors of the dressing room, the truth is revealed, and all our efforts to camouflage that truth are useless.

Just as we have become experts at covering up our figure flaws, so have we become adept at covering up the ugly realities of our inner lives. But then the day comes when we’re broken by our sinful choices, undressed before the eyes of God, unable to hide. This is where King David found himself after his affair with Bathsheba and murder of Uriah, her husband. He had tried to cover it up and justify it, but he found himself exposed by the truth and exhausted by guilt. As he looked into the mirror of the law and love of God, the reality of what he had done broke him and humbled him. David cried out to be cleansed, asking God to wash away his sin, relieve him of his guilt, and replace it all with joy—the joy he had known before, when everything was right and open between him and God.

There’s a direct correlation between our sorrow over sin and our capacity for joy. The reason we don’t have more joy is because we’re just not that sorry over our sin. We don’t see it as that big of a problem. It’s like this: If you have a hangnail and it is cured, you are happy. But how much greater is your joy to find out you’ve been cured of heart disease? Likewise, if you’re cured from what you consider a small sin problem, your joy is small. But when you see yourself in the mirror of the holiness of God and recognize the enormity of your sin problem, and you find out that God has cured you, your joy is great, overflowing, unspeakable.

Perhaps it’s time you stopped avoiding the mirror. Bring everything out into the open before him. As you see your sin for the big problem it really is, ask him for forgiveness and restoration. God will show you his mercy and fill you with his joy.

My Restorer, I want to let go of this guilt and shame and feel the smile of God on my life. Restore me and renew me. Give me back my joy.

DIGGING DEEPER