I recently had one of those “SWEET!!!” moments with God. In my quiet time I was again reminded that God wants us to experience JOY! I want joy in my life…I find joy in my life by doing what I was created to do…I was created to worship God…as I worship God and experience His grace and mercy, I am compelled to pour that out on others…as I pour that out on others I experience joy, thereby worshipping God more, thereby receiving more grace and mercy from God, thereby pouring more out on others…and the cycle goes on. Isn’t that incredible? So I was thinking about this and trying to explain it to my wife…I actually read a section of the book to her. It is in John Piper’s book Desiring God. Love is the overflow of joy in God that meets the needs of others.  The overflow is experienced consciously as the pursuit of our joy in the joy of another. We double our delight in God as we expand it in the lives of others. If our ultimate goal were anything less than joy in God, we would be idolaters and would be no eternal help to anyone. Therefore, the pursuit of pleasure is an essential motive for every good deed. And if you aim to abandon the pursuit of full and lasting pleasure, you cannot love people or please God. So I was thinking about how cool it is to be able to pour out the love of God on others and how we are to find joy in that. And I was struck with the reality that sometimes…I don’t feel like loving others and sometimes it is because I don’t feel that love from God. It is hard to pour out something that isn’t there. I experience times when it is pretty tough for me to pour out the love of God, the grace of God, the mercy of God on others because I haven’t really been experiencing it in my own life. Why not? I'll tell you why not…because I have allowed other things to come in and rob my JOY! I have allowed other things to have my heart. Things like…WORRY…FEAR…ANXIETY…DOUBT. All of these feelings have crept in and crowded JOY right out of my life! Here is where it gets good… Right after I read this paragraph to my wife, I opened the door to my daughter’s bedroom (she is 4 and a tremendous blessing), after a few minutes, I heard a grunt. I grunted back and heard her giggle. She grunted again and I knew the game was on. I ran in and found her under the covers “trying to hide”. I jumped on the bed and started to tickle her, bringing forth a sound that I absolutely love to hear. My DAUGHTER'S LAUGHTER! There is nothing better than hearing a child laugh…it is so innocent and pure…it is truly from the deepest part of who they are. I stopped tickling for just a moment to enjoy the laughter. She pulled the covers back, brushed the hair from her face, looked at me and said “Tickle me daddy!” and hid back under the covers. She was experiencing JOY from the tickling...she asked me to tickle her because it brought her JOY! I was tickling her because I love hearing her laugh and enjoy “my tickling”. The more I tickle the more she laughs…the more she laughs the more she enjoys my presence and my company…and the more tickling she wants. It is cyclical! Just like God! Right then it hit me…God does the same thing with us…we just have to ask for Him to "tickle us". There are times that we have to stop what we are doing and say "God, bring me JOY today! Tickle me Daddy" It is ok to do this...He wants us to delight in Him. He wants us to REJOICE! When we find JOY in Him, we worship Him...and that is what brings Him the most pleasure...His Creation worshiping Him! So…this morning (after we got up and got breakfast going) I prayed. I don’t want the negative stuff of life to come in and crowd out! I don’t want my life to be characterized by WORRY…FEAR…ANXIETY…DOUBT. I want my life to be characterized by JOY! So this morning, my prayer is simply this…“TICKLE ME DADDY!” God, help me today to experience those things from You that bring me JOY…so that I may pour out Your love and Your grace and Your mercy upon those that come in to my life today. Tickle me Daddy!
Pastor Donavon Roberson © 2006 Bible Center Church Back To Main Page / Archive of Previous Articles