Scripture

Christian Hedonism is much aware that every day with Jesus is not “sweeter than the day before.” Some days with Jesus, our disposition is sour. Some days with Jesus, we are so sad we feel our heart will break open. Some days with Jesus, we are so depressed and discouraged that, between the garage and the house, we just want to sit down on the grass and cry.

Every day with Jesus is not sweeter than the day before. We know it from experience, and we know it from Scripture. For David says in Psalm 19:7 (ESV),

The law of the Lord is perfect,

reviving the soul.

If every day with Jesus were sweeter than the day before, if life were a steady ascent with no dips in our affection for God, we wouldn’t need to be revived.

Our joy is not static. It fluctuates with real life. It is vulnerable to Satan’s attacks.

When Paul says in 2 Corinthians 1:24 (ESV), “Not that we lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy,” we should emphasize it this way: “We work with you for your joy.” The preservation of our joy in God takes work. It is a fight. Our “adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion” (1 Pet. 5:8, ESV), and he has an insatiable appetite to destroy one thing: the joy of faith. But the Holy Spirit has given us a sword called the word of God (Eph. 6:17) for the defense of our joy.

But if we intend to wield it, we must wear it. We must be like Ezra: “The good hand of his God was on him. For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the Lord, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel” (Ezra 7:9–10, ESV). And we must get a heart like the saint who wrote the great love song to the law of God in Psalm 119:

Oh how I love your law!

It is my meditation all the day. (119:97, ESV)

Let us labor to memorize the word of God—for worship and for warfare. If we do not carry it in our heads, we cannot savor it in our hearts or wield it in the Spirit. If you go out without the kindling of Christian Hedonism, the fire of Christian happiness will be quenched before mid-morning.