1 - Introduction - Living like a real Christian JOY | Page 3

MONDAY
Zephaniah 3 v 16
This week won’t you take notice of one very apparent thing about Joseph as per the story that
we know so well and that is simply that Joseph exhibited incredible joy in his life because he
HAD CONFIDENCE IN THE CONTROLLER OF HIS LIFE.
According to the passage above there are a number of evidences of joyful people who
understand that God is sovereign and to whom the Romans 8 v 28 Scripture is practically
realised (“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him…”) in
order for us to understand the extent of “all” in this verse we need to understand
contentment and confidence in the context of the one who controls our lives. Today let us
deal with the first of the four criteria.
People who have confidence in the controller of their life have, according to verse 16 …NO
FEAR.
Satan knows full well that if he can make you fearful he can control you. There are so many
Biblical examples of this. Just think of Goliath as he ranted and raved in the face of the nation
of Israel and how even their mightiest warriors were hiding behind the rocks in fear of this one
man. Satan would like to believe that he can intimidate you by making you fearful of him.
According to the story of Goliath, everyone was fearful except one young man who broke
through the ranks and stood with confidence before Goliath because he, like Joseph, was
confident in the controller of his life.
For me another great story that illustrates this principle can be found in1 Samuel 14, where
King Saul was surrounded by the Philistines.He calls for a prayer meeting. They all met at the
pomegranate tree in order to pray. Now I need you to know that I have nothing against prayer
and I think sometimes that we do not pray enough, but even prayer, as good as it is, is no
substitute for bold action. Jonathan, Saul’s son, saw that praying was not enough, so he took
his sword and his servant and climbed the cliff to face the might of the Philistine army all on
his own. The story ends remarkably where Saul acknowledges Jonathan’s boldness and he too
rallies the rest of the army to face the Philistines anda great victory was then won.
The most common command in the Bible is the command,“…do not fear”. One cannot read
the Bible without God commanding the peopleto NOT fear and reassures them of the
supernatural power of His presence. Think of Joshua crossing the Jordan River, a river that was
in flood and certainly didnot look “crossable”, but God, a number of times in Joshua 2, says to
Joshua “Do not fear, for I am with you.” With great confidence and boldness Joshua led the
nation of Israel across the Jordan River. He too is a great example of one who had great
confidence in the controller of his life.