Over the years I have heard myself say that many people have fun, happiness, and good times, but as a rule, few people have joy. So, what is joy and why do I think so few people have it.
I will attempt to define joy as that peace and contentment found only in the inner sanctum of one's heart. God puts a void in every one's heart that only He can fill. We are designed by our creator and when we find out who He is, the Holy Spirit comes in and fills that emptiness. Will all our problems be solved. No! Will everything be roses? No! Will we have everything we ever wanted? No! Well, based on the last few statements I don't see anything joyful or fulfilling about still having the same problems, etc. . I already have them, so why do I now need God?
When one recognizes that they are a helpless sinner who must deal with a holy God, the realization of the incomprehensible sacrifice that Jesus Christ made on our behalf to remove our sin from as far as the East is from the West (Psalm 103:12) and to cleanse us and completely remove the stain of sin, we are humbled to the point that we now know that we owe Christ our entire lives. The very fact that we can come before almighty God and have a relationship with Him is made possible only by the grace and mercy of God. This might be a good time to look at John 3:16 which says "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life." The believeth here is referring to a relationship of trust and submission to God's will, not in the idea of belief in a famous person such as Abraham Lincoln. That is, we are not trusting Abraham Lincoln for anything that would transform our lives, but we do believe that he was a great man in history. I hope you see the difference.
So, let's get back to what JOY means. I think it means JESUS ONLY YOU! This is what I have come to realize is the only thing in life that matters...Jesus Christ. Jesus commands our worship, but does not force it. He tells his disciples that if anyone loves a father. mother, sister, brother, husband or wife more than me, he is not worth of me (Matt.10:37). He wants us to want all of Him and to love Him with all of our heart, soul, and mind. That is a tall order which none of mankind can or will ever live up to. However, He does want us to desire that as we grow in our relationship with Him.
You see, once we have the desire in our hearts to love Jesus more and more each day, our troubles and difficulties are often times still there, but Jesus will allow us to persevere and take one more step as we trust Him more and more. We realize that Jesus has our backs, if you will, and He will ALWAYS be there for us because of His unfailing love... God's unfailing love is mentioned throughout the Psalms and I hope that brings you as much comfort as it does me. It is amazing to me how often we miss this, but I can assure you that God will take whatever measures He chooses to finish the work He started in you because He is faithful and He will complete the work (Philippians 1:6).
I think the JOY of I want only you Jesus is where contentment begins and ends because everything we have, or do, etc belongs to Him and we are only stewards of His belongings. Joy means abiding in Him and getting our strength and vitality and satisfaction from a person, not a thing. Jesus Christ is real and desires to know all of us so much that He was willing to die for us on the cross. He sacrificed himself so that the penalty of sin which is death would be satisfied once and for all time. He does not ask us to clean up our lives, stop our bad habits, or try harder to live a righteous life because He knows we are incapable of that. However, He does offer the gift of salvation (having your sins paid for in full and becoming white as snow when you stand before almighty God) as a FREE GIFT. We only have to ask Him for it with a heart of truthfulness and forgiveness and He will come into our lives. Dear reader, I hope you will do this if you are not a believer already, and simply talk to God like you are talking to a friend asking Him to come in and take control of your life from this day forward...and have the wonderful knowledge of knowing what true JOY is!
No comments:
Post a Comment