There are times when I get some clarity of mind. Of course, I know that in a few days I may realize I was wrong. Be that as it may, today I sense some clarity. I believe there is joy in the christian life. I also believe that Oswald Chambers was right when he said that joy was found in being obedient to God (or doing His will). That, perhaps, is what the joy of the Lord is all about. Elsewhere Chambers writes,

“It requires a conscious decision and effort to keep our primary goal constantly in front of us. It means holding ourselves to the highest priority year in and year out; not making our first priority to win souls, or to establish churches, or to have revivals, but seeking only to be ‘well pleasing to Him.’”

Ah. How easy it is to switch the goals. How easy it is to make the ‘results’ the goal rather than the true goal of being pleasing to Him. It is hard work. To be broken and poured out before God is to be constantly looking at your motives and asking the question, “Lord, is this it. Is this the thing that YOU would have me to do?” It is this being “well pleasing to Him” that is missing in the church today. We want to be relevant (which is important), we want to be significant, we want to do great things for the Lord. Yes, these are important. However, as we seek to be pleasing to Him, we will discover along the way that we are relevant, significant and doing great things for the Lord, “Unless the Lord builds the house the laborers labor in vain.”

What we are to be about is not Christianity that is a “flash in the pan,” but one that lasts, that calls people to bow before God, receive his grace and move from that place as changed persons. This is not for a season, this is for a lifetime. Have we, perhaps with good intentions, forgotten our primary goal of being pleasing to God? It happens.