Restore the Joy of Your Salvation

I love this verse. It’s a desire, a wish that I have in my heart. I want God to restore the joy of His salvation in my life. I yearn for the days that I felt a fulness of His Presence in me. But, I know that a large reason for why I haven’t felt that way is my negligence. I’m catching myself writing this, and a part of me wants to stop. Should I really be this transparent? I don’t mind. I think it’s important that we share our truths and recognize our faults as Christians and humans beings. There’s no shame in falling or being in a slump. The shame comes when you’re not willing to get back up and continue fighting.

The sport I love most is boxing. There’s several reasons why I enjoy watching and following the sport. One of the primary reasons is because of what these fighters and their fights represent symbolically. I’m not always impressed with an undefeated record in boxing. Is it a good thing? Sure. It signifies a dominance over your opponents. But most of the time I’m more impressed with how a fighter reacts after he loses. There’s a cliche saying that says, “It’s not about how many times you fall, but about how many times you get back up.” That’s what life is all about.

Over the years you come to realize many things. One of those things is that there really is no good for us outside of God. It’s funny because I remember reading this verse several times before it actually became real to me. It was about four years back when I was working at a different property for the company I work with. I was going through a major slump and didn’t have much hope around this time. I was discouraged and full of anxiety. I took my lunch break and I went to park on a parking lot. I do this to relax and to get away for a bit. I opened up my Bible and read the following verse again;

I said to the Lord, “You are my Lord; I have no good besides You.” – Psalm 16:2

It hit me like a ton of bricks. “Man, there really is no good for me outside of You, God,” I thought to myself. Sometimes we have to experience certain things to understand certain truths. On that day I realized that there is no good for us outside of God. Now, does that mean that I didn’t experience any more discouragements after this? No. It just means that now I understand that my solution to those discouragements will never be found outside of God. True happiness and joy will always be found in God.

This leads me back to the original verse that opens this blog, “Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation.” Once you’ve tasted God’s goodness, there’s simply no way that anything else can satisfy you. It could satisfy you temporarily, but after a while the satisfaction ends and you feel empty again. Only God can truly satisfy our hearts and that’s why we continue to fight. No matter how dark our nights get, we have to believe that there will be a radiant sun in the morning. No matter how terrible your sin looks, we have to believe that God forgives. And no matter how discouraged and far away we feel from God, we have to believe that He can still restore the joy of His salvation in our lives.

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