Our Responsibility in Experiencing Joy

Church Family:
God wants you to be joyful. In fact, He wants you to experience the most maximum fullness of joy that is available on earth. John the Apostle, as he was approaching 90 years old, after he had watched all his closest friends be martyred, who also spent decades fleeing Christian persecution, wrote a letter on how to have a full and complete joy. We call that letter 1 John. John wrote this letter so that we would know how to make our joy complete (1 John 1:4). John's letter is simply his life testimony of how he applied the personal, face to face teachings of Jesus to all of life. Jesus told all the disciples repeatedly, as they lived life together for three years, that He came for us to have a fullness of joy in every moment of our lives, including old age, persecution and eminent martyrdom (John 3:29, 15:11, 16:24, 17:13).

John experienced a fullness of joy in a long life of turmoil and continual crisis not by sitting and waiting for God to inject joy in the need of the moment. John tells us that Jesus told him that joy is a choice and habit of the heart. Joy became an enduring quality of John's life through his delightful discipline of rejoicing. John makes it clear that a fullness of joy comes through obedience to Jesus’ commands. We have responsibility in the experience of the fullness of joy that Jesus promises us.

John tells us through his letter that obedience will prime the pump of joyfulness. He says that keeping God's commandments brings a fullness of joy; believing in Jesus Christ brings a fullness of joy; loving one another brings a fullness of joy; abiding in God and in Christ brings a fullness of joy; walking in the light and not in darkness brings a fullness of joy; loving other believers and fellowshipping with them brings a fullness of joy; not loving the world or the things in the world brings a fullness of joy; abiding in truth brings a fullness of joy; doing the will of God brings a fullness of joy; testing the spirits to see if they are from God brings a fullness of joy; not believing every spirit brings a fullness of joy; confessing that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh brings a fullness of joy; practicing righteousness brings a fullness of joy; having confidence before God brings a fullness of joy; asking according to God's will brings a fullness of joy. The Lord wants us to know that our delightful obedience will spring forth within us a fullness of joy.

As you are delightfully obeying, don't forget to ask the God of all joy for a fullness of joy. Jesus says, "Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full" (John 16:24). Joy is a gift, His name is Jesus, and that Joy is made full when walking in obedience to Christ's commands.

See you Sunday, rejoicing: Steve