Joy unspeakable

[Jesus Christ] whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith the salvation of your souls. - 1 Peter 1v8-9

Seeing is believing. How often have we heard that? And to be honest, in many cases seeing is indeed believing. I tend to be a sceptic. If someone tells me something I normally want to see the evidence or find out a source so I can check it out myself.

However, there are times when not seeing should also be believing. None of us has ever seen Jesus face to face. Despite that we love Him because He first loved us. Even though we have not yet seen Him we can rejoice with joy unspeakable and with a joy that is full of glory.

The problem is taking this theory and making it practice. I think it is all a matter of focus. If our focus is in the here and now, with all of its troubles and trials and struggles it is going to be very difficult to rejoice with inexpressible joy.

Sadly, I often find my own joy conditional on my circumstances. I rejoice when things are going well and get down when things are going badly. The problem then is that I am believing what I see instead of the One I cannot see.

We have seen that we are pilgrims and strangers passing through this land. If we get distracted along the way there is no way that we are going to be able to rejoice with that unspeakable joy.

Rejoice when the economy is in free fall and all our jobs are under threat? Rejoice when physical trials hit? Rejoice when our families are in crisis?

As hard as it sounds the answer is yes. It all comes down to a matter of believing. Do I really believe in the final salvation of my soul? If I do then this is all bearable. If not then I am sure to get mired down.

The only hope for this unspeakable joy is for us to choose to believe what we cannot see and to keep that deep rooted joy no matter what we happen to be able to see.