The Joy Calculator

The grocery list grows long and the pantry gets scant and Jackson and I sit down to crunch numbers.

“We’re going to be okay,” he tells me with a smile. “Just don’t go to the grocery. And don’t get gas. Oh, and don’t pay any bills either.”

I laugh.

Sometimes you need to borrow the faith of another. I lean heavy on Jackson’s.

But I still don’t know how creative I can get with canned beets and tuna. That’s all that’s left.

Budgets and math can tell a grim story. It tells us where we stand and how we fare.

And who doesn’t do it… Crunch the numbers?

We crunch to get information, to clarify purpose, to gain wisdom.

We input the numbers and run the calculations and out comes the result.

But numbers aren’t the only thing you can crunch. You can crunch circumstances, too.

We can calculate trials and hardships and bare pantries and lost relationships and bad doctor’s reports.

And who doesn’t do that as well? Crunching circumstances is part of life.

It’s good to crunch circumstances. Scripture commands us to crunch circumstances, just like we crunch numbers…we just have to crunch correctly. When we crunch God’s way, the result is always the same:

J    O    Y

Who would have thought that God’s gift to us is a calculator that takes all of life’s ups and downs, all the testings and the trials and the difficulties and crunches them to produce a single, shining outcome: Joy?

Who would have thought?

But this is indeed the gift we have, this JOY calculator, if we will but sit down and do the crunching:

” Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds…” James 1:2

Pastor says “consider” means to count, to calculate, to press your mind down upon. It’s an accounting term.

“You can’t come to a joyful conclusion about a trial without calculating it,” he says.

Yes.

This is why we worry about the math calculations and the check book balance and the doctor’s report and the phone call we never received and the break we never got…we’ve forgotten to run things through the Joy Calculator.

We are using the wrong cruncher.

The Joy Calculator, it tells the truth. We can always use it and say, “I’ve crunched the circumstances and things look good, real good!”

“And we boast in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance. You have need of perseverance so that after you have done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised.” Romans 5:3, Hebrews 10:36

Pastor explains that perseverance is “hoopomone” in Greek and it means “to bear up under.” Trials give us the ability to bear up under pressure.

And this single characteristic of “hoopomone” is the means to all other virtues and characteristics.

Hoopomone is the “funnel” through which we receive everything!

“And let hoopomone have its perfect work, so that the man of God may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” James 1:4

So the calculating goes something like this:

Trial (fill in blank) + faith = Hoopomone (perseverance)  and Hoopomone = mature, complete, perfect!

This…this is why we can calculate everything as joy. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. (II Cor 4:17)

So I sit down with the Joy Calculator and I do some crunching. I plug in the circumstances and I apply faith and I see what God is doing and sure enough, out comes the expected result.

Joy.

I keep plugging things in, hard things. Sad things. The worst things I’ve ever experienced.

It is quite unbelievable. No matter what I plug in, the result keeps coming out the same.

I think I’m addicted.

I’ve done some calculating and things look good. In fact, they are glorious and I can’t help but share the wonderful news.

{Want to borrow my calculator this weekend?}

 

 

 

 

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8 Comments

  1. Girl!! How on earth do you get inside my head like that?? Oh right – that’s the Spirit of God talking directly through your writing once again! Thank you – this is yet another post that I need to print out and hang right next to my computer, and next to the bed, and next to my favorite chair, and on my rearview mirror… :) If you’re ever do any speaking engagements anywhere in the southeastern part of the United States, I’m so there! Thanks again for blessing me so mightily! (And I need to make a note to myself: don’t attempt to read anything labeled “Arabah Joy” without at least one full box of Kleenex close at hand!) Praying God’s blessings on you today, my friend!

  2. Thank you so much, Arabah Joy. Thank you for being a channel. How I needed this tonight. I am amazed by how the body of Christ actually works and how He gives gifts so that we build up one another. To Him be all glory.

  3. I LOVE this! Sharing everywhere. The numbers don’t add up, but God’s concept is simple. Count it all joy. Now if I can just get that to stick in my brain…instead of the numbers…;)

  4. Being polished and refined like gold!!! To shine in His glory for others to see – that is the way I calculate dealing with my son’s schizophrenia and it has definitely polished my patience, endurance, thankfulness thanks for the calculator

  5. Oh wow, I so needed this! I’ve been feeling pretty darn sorry for myself today (struggling with some significant insomnia the last week), and am SO GLAD to be reminded that our TRIALS give us the ability to bear up under pressure…God is GROWING me :) HIS JOY is MY STRENGTH!! Thanks Arabah :)

  6. Arabah Joy, you are one amazing lady! I am 76 years old and I have been connected to your ministry for a couple of years. Your heart blows me away! Your love blows me away! Your dedication to God blows me away! I pick up your devotional every morning and I say “God, how did this girl get this way?” I pray for you and your family, and I love the gift you are to the world we live in!

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