Many a Christian song writer has used the line after all that I have been through, I still have joy. Joy is a fruit of the Spirit of God that is vitally necessary for the health and well being of my heart, mind, body spirit and soul. It pulls all of these things together and keeps me motivated and focused on the fact that neither my past or my current situation dictate my future outcome!
That is why it is important--no--imperative for us to submit to and accept the Joy of the Lord. We must allow His joy to remain with us so that our joy might be full. It is His joy that keeps me stretching past my breaking point, past my comfort zone, into a new place in my spiritual advancement. It is His joy that reminds me that He meant it for my good. It keeps me from seeing negative things negatively. As a matter of fact I like the way Brother Bryan Rankin put it on Sunday. He said he was complaining to God about his car being broken down and some repairs that he had to make to his home, but after careful consideration he had to stop and give God thanks because he remembered when he didn't have a car that could break down and he didn't have a home that needed repairs. It is that JOY of the Lord that causes us to see our lives and our circumstances differently and this process matures us and takes us to those higher heights and deeper depths that we want to reach in our relationship with God.
So we should be excited about the Word of God that shows us the following points:
1. Was provided yesterday.
2. Verses 4&5 tells us that God grants us an opportunity to be still and receive the pruning, care and the discipline required to grow beyond our own expectations and the expectations of others. People may have counted you out, but God picked you up, grafted you in, gave you new life and allowed you to begin again. Not only are you productive, but you are a miracle! Not only are you fruitful, but you are doing more than even you imagined or anyone who knew you imagined!
3. Verse 7 explains that as we learn to reach into the vine and into the very root through our worship we are in fact using our spirit to worship God in spirit and in truth. This allows us to truly touch God and to speak to Him in a faith language that He will respond to. It is not emotionally driven. It is not driven by manipulation, but it is pure faith and as with any language it must be learned through practice. You want to learn French go to France! You want to grow in faith have your faith tested--your joy will keep you motivated while you learn the faith language.
4. Verse 8 shows us that when we opt to do things the way that God commands--for His Word states that if we love Him we will keep His commandments--God is glorified and magnified through our faithful obedience. We need to become oblivious to the physical outcomes and trust that God will do what He said He will do. We are representatives of Christ. For us to obey Him and for Him not to respond to that is not His character--He is not a man that He should lie.
5. Verse 9 cuts to the crux of the matter and here is where your joy becomes full. God provided the ultimate example of love through sacrifice--the sacrifice of His son. Now we ought to continue to walk in that example.
We arrive at verse 11, which is our focus. Here is where every Christian ought to greedily take their fill. These Words are the words of Jesus and he says I've shared all of this with you so that my joy might remain with you and that your joy might be full. So when I just think of the goodness and then on top of that alllllllllll that He has done for me, but add on top of that who He is, then my joy is full. I know that the situation is going to turn around just for me. He's going to work it out for me no matter what it looks like. He's working behind the scenes on my behalf no matter what people say. My joy fully holds me up, picks me up, keeps me up and allows me to restore somebody else in their time of need freely knowing that that ember that I received from God will never go out.
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