Full Measure of Joy

Scotty Smith:  A Prayer for the Restoration of Our Joy

Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. Psalm 51:12
“Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.” Nehemiah 8:10

     Lord Jesus, surely, none of us is as joyful as you intend, So I make King David’s prayer for the restoration of joy mine. But as I do so, I pray as well for a bevy of family members, friends, and colleagues. Everybody is hungry for the bread you alone can give. Like David, all of us has stories of heartache and weariness, failure and fear, brokenness and weakness. The details differ, but each of us needs you, just as much as the other.
     Knowing you intend for the “full measure” of your joy to be in us (John 17:13), makes it easy to ask with confidence.  So I pray boldly and with great anticipation, restore to us the joy of your salvation. It’s your salvation, because we could never ever save ourselves, though we still foolishly try at times.  Like Jonah, we humbly cry from within our own hard places, “Salvation comes from the Lord!” (Jonah 2:9).
     Bring us back to the joyful, childlike love we had for you at first, Jesus (Revelation 2:4)—a love totally generated by grace, and a joy compelled in response to the undeserved, unparalleled, unwavering love lavished upon us in the gospel (1 John 3:1-3; 4:19).
     We crave fresh and more joy, Jesus, because your joy is our strength—strength for repenting, strength for obeying, strength for hoping, strength for serving others. Above all, it’s strength for adoring and worshipping you, with everything we have and are. So, Jesus, fill us again with inexpressible joy—a joy filled with your glory. (1 Peter 1:8)
     Because the gospel is true, we pray with contrite but condemnation-free hearts and with brokenness, but penance-free faith. Jesus, because you are our faithful Advocate, always praying for us, we wait expectantly.  In you most holy, loving and faithful name, we pray.