You Don’t Say! [Inexpressible Joy]

For followers of Christ, is joy a choice, or, is joy inevitable?

We are commanded to choose joy. And yet, joy is said to be an inevitable and enduring consequence of being a follower of Christ.

Many times we just aren’t feeling the joy. You don’t have to be clinically depressed or in a state of grief in order to experience intense sadness, insomnia, dysfunctional eating patterns (with accompanying weight loss or weight gain), or suicidal ideation.

Especially in this season of social isolation, often accompanied by the loss of loved ones, loss of employment, and similar depression-triggering conditions.

Actually, many of the difficulties we are experiencing in this season are similar to the difficulties being experienced by the Christians in Asia Minor … to whom Peter was writing in the epistle of 1 Peter.

And to these suffering people, Peter spoke of “inexpressible joy” or “joy that is unspeakable.”

How do you reconcile this season of isolation, loneliness, anxiety and grief with “inexpressible joy”?

That’s the challenge of today’s 1 Peter lesson.