Jesus’ Instructions for Joy... John 15 Jesus tells us that He's the true vine, we’re the branches. He “prunes" us so that we can bear more fruits of the spirit. He instructs us to follow His word, love each other and remain in Him. He reminds us that apart from Him we can't do anything. He tells us if we remain in Him we will bear fruit, have His word in us, and that God will be glorified through us. He tells us how much He loves us and asks us to stay with that love! Just as God loved Jesus, Jesus tells us of how he loves us. He tells us to bask in that love! In verse 11 He tells us “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete” This is not just having Joy. Jesus says He says His joy is in us. He gets Joy from watching us remain in His love and grow. And He tells us, through our obedience and a willingness to stick near Him our Joy will be COMPLETE! Imagine, having Joy that is complete no matter what is going on in our lives! What an awesome gift to us! Thank you God!
0 Comments
Joy Journey... 2 Consider it pure Joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. ~ James 1:2-4 What?! I know what you're thinking...this is crazy right! Joy, when you lose your job. Joy, when your child is sick. Joy, when the roof leaks or the car wont start. Joy, when your world falls apart! But bare with me for a minute, I think theres more to it. Consider it pure Joy. PURE JOY when you face trials. God and I have had late night conversations over this verse many, many times. Was it pure joy when my heart was broken? Did I feel pure joy when my family was torn apart? No. Because at that time I was following feelings not faith. Feelings & emotions that aren't stemmed from faith, are momentary and can be deceitful. How often have I said "God I don't FEEL you here"! No place in God's Word does He say have faith and follow your feelings...trust me, I've looked :) Its not there! Our Father tells us to live by faith, believe in Him & His word, which is all truth and inspired by Him. So back to Pure Joy. Lets consider Joy as being a choice you make every day. Every morning, as I drop my sweet kidos off at school, I tell them "good attitudes make good days!" How often do I need to be told that in my trials of each day? So for today, I choose to be joyful and happy(even in my trials) because I KNOW God's Word is truth. And if His Word says consider it PURE Joy when the trials come, because I'm grooming and growing you in the Fruits of the Spirit ....then thats something to get excited about! The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing. Zephaniah 3:17 Hello my friends!
I want to invite you to come with me on what I call my " Joy Journey". For me, 2015 is all about Choosing Joy, and I will be committing my writing to this journey for a time. This year, this day, this moment in time I choose to be joyful and happy not because of what's going on in my life, but because of what's going on my heart! I choose to be joyful and happy today not because of my bank balance, accomplished chore list, sweet children, or even a good hair day. Those things are good, but they aren't lasting. Today I choose to be joyful because The Lord is with me! I choose to be happy simply because my Heavenly Father takes GREAT delight in me! The God who is all knowing, omnipresent, creator of the universe & eternally loving is rejoicing and singing over me! His delight and love does not stem from what I've done, or what I'm going to do. My Father takes delight in me simply because I choose to believe in Him and accept my role as His child. So today, no matter what is going on in your life, I ask you to examine your heart and Choose Joy! |
AuthorI'm a single mama of 2 great kidos seeking and searching for Gods will in our lives :) Archives
December 2017
Categories
All
|