Gospel Prism

SGM Blog has a great podcast on fighting for joy.  It’s good to know that people like CJ Mahaney actually has to fight for joy like the rest of us:

It’s a fight each and every day. So this is not a natural disposition that one possesses. Each day sin will be opposing the experience and cultivation of joy in our lives. I am personally very familiar with weariness and discouragement and, therefore, what I read in Scripture about the priority of joy and the experience of joy is very applicable to my soul.

And each day what I seek to do, from the outset of the day, is position myself as close to the gospel as possible so that I might experience the effects of the gospel. One pronounced effect of preaching the gospel to my soul is joy.

I am the worst sinner I know. And given the countless sins I have been forgiven of, as I contemplate the Savior’s substitutionary sacrifice on the cross for my sins, the effect of that contemplation in my life is joy.

I heartily agree.  The fight for joy in the throes of rampant sin is a great challenge.  Thanks be to God that God did the hard work (the work of His Son’s subsitutionary death) so that our burdens are lifted from us (Matthew 11:28-30)!