by Pastor Douglas Brauner

Enjoying the Presence of Our Redeemer

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

“How joyful are those who fear the LORD—all who follow his ways!”
Psalm 128:1 New Living Translation

Why is it that many Christians, me included, think that following Jesus is more like taking out the garbage than a romantic night on the town with the one we love?

In a recent devotional time, I read the psalm verse above then followed it with Colossians 3:1-17 where Paul encourage his readers to take off their old clothes and put on the new clothing of Christ. He lists those things that belong to the old clothing like anger, malice, and slander, then speaks of our new clothing, things like compassion, meekness and forgiveness.

There is a strong desire for us to live this kind of life in Christ, but when the way gets dusty, we might feel that walking on Jesus’ path is difficult. It is a daily battle.

Why don’t we find great joy in fearing God and following his paths for our lives?

Maybe it’s because we see our faith in terms of what we are not supposed to do and have lost the vision of our calling of what God wants to do through us. That was the situation facing the Colossians. A group of people were telling them what they were not supposed to do to the point that they lost their joy in following Jesus.

Joy is rooted in fearing God. This is not a call to be afraid of God, but to stand in awe of his majesty. It is a call to lay aside our idols and worship him alone, to worship the one who emptied heaven of his Son to forgive us and renew us. Joy is rooted in following God on his paths for our lives, a path that includes, faith, hope and love.

Fearing God and following his paths is like going to dinner with the one we love and that is our joy.

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado