Weather Report From Heaven: Sunny and bright, with an abundance of light and lots of singing and rejoicing.
Scripture- “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.” John 15:11
Insight – As we continue our look at how to gain unspeakable joy as a result of our relationship with Christ, it is important to remember that the greatest joy we can gain in our life is through the abiding relationship we have with Christ via the Holy Spirit living in us. It is what turns on the joy fountain in our life. God is love, God is good and thus when we stay connected, or abide in Him, His love and goodness naturally flow through us and produce the fruit of joy. The key word in John 15:4-5 in the ESV translation is abide. It says “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If we learn to abide in Christ, then joy is the result. We don’t have to strive or strain, the joy comes as a natural result of us being in the Lord’s presence. Just like a branch connected to the vine doesn;t have to labor heavily or toil to produce fruit, so it is with us and joy. It is referred to as a fruit of the Spirit living in us in Galatians 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”
One of the things I have learned in my faith walk is that God doesn’t treat us like others do. He doesn’t expect perfection and He doesn’t judge us on performance. Rather, He simply asks us to be in His presence, by abiding in Him through the proximity to His Son and through the Holy Spirit. This is so He can produce the joy in our life that we all seek. He doesn;t want us trying to find it in other places, because He knows it will never truly satisfy us like He can through the Spirit. We often try to control our joy faucet through our good deeds, through our work performance or from trying to gain approval from other people, which in itself is a bad idea. Jesus tells us all that is required for joy to flow in us and through us is to abide in Him. I love the story that illustrates this clearly in Luke 10:38-42 “As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” The take away for us is obvious: Abiding in Christ is above all other activities we can do because from it flows a wellspring of joy.
Prayer: Jesus, thank you that you invite us to find the joy we seek by just abiding in You through the Holy Spirit. The fruit of joy flows freely from our connection to You, the Vine of life. Amen!
0 Comments