My Joy . . . Your Joy
That My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. - John
15:11 <http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?version=31&search=John+15%3A11>
What was the joy that Jesus had? It is an insult to use the word happiness
in connection with Jesus Christ. The joy of Jesus was the absolute
self-surrender and self-sacrifice of Himself to His Father, the joy of doing
that which the Father sent Him to do. "I delight to do Thy will." Jesus
prayed that our joy might go on fulfilling itself until it was the same joy
as His. Have I allowed Jesus Christ to introduce His joy to me?
The full flood of my life is not in bodily health, not in external
happenings, not in seeing God's work succeed, but in the perfect
understanding of God, and in the communion with Him that Jesus Himself had.
The first thing that will hinder this joy is the captious irritation of
thinking out circumstances. The cares of this world, said Jesus, will choke
God's word. Before we know where we are, we are caught up in the shows of
things. All that God has done for us is the mere threshold; He wants to get
us to the place where we will be His witnesses and proclaim Who Jesus is.
Be rightly related to God, find your joy there, and out of you will flow
rivers of living water. Be a centre for Jesus Christ to pour living water
through. Stop being self-conscious, stop being a sanctified prig, and live
the life hid with Christ. The life that is rightly related to God is as
natural as breathing wherever it goes. The lives that have been of most
blessing to you are those who were unconscious of it.
<
Victoria E Gilkerson
