Daily Texts – Saturday, January 18, 2014 My heart exults in the Lord. 1 Samuel 2:1 Jesus said, “Abide in my love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.” John 15:9,11 It is helpful that Jesus used the word joy. Joy is a word that allows for great emotion, but does not demand it. For some time now we have lived in a culture that raises feelings to the highest level of truth. We falsely think that if we feel something then it is necessarily true. An example of this is when we often miscommunicate by saying, “I feel …” and what follows is not a feeling. The reason we use this expression in our communication is because we view our feelings as powerful and unassailable. It is helpful to be aware of our feelings and not seek to deny them, but it is also true that our feelings often betray us and draw us into falsehood. This is apparent when we equate the highest form of spiritual experience as always being an emotional high. We tend to question the validity of their spiritual experiences because of a perceived lack of strong emotions. Jesus teaches that when we abide in his love, our joy will be complete. Jesus is allowing for our emotional response to his unshakable love, but he is not demanding that our response be overtly emotional in a particular way. The joy we have in Christ is a deep and abiding joy wherein the heart exults and it is much more stable than our fickle emotions. Deeply-stirred emotions are sometimes part of our response to the love of God in Christ. The real good news, however, is that Christ’s love for us abides with us whether we are feeling it or not. Jesus teaches that the joy we have in us is the joy that Jesus has – a God-sized joy. It is a joy with divine character and capabilities. This joy is eternal and abiding. It is not dependent on where are our emotions at any one moment. Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ, including our lack of particular emotions. This is our true joy. -Pastor Steve Brown
Posted on: Sat, 18 Jan 2014 17:34:06 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015