"that your joy may be complete"

“Joy is not dependent on circumstances”... 

My best friend told me that when we were juniors in high school (she’s a pretty smart cookie huh?). It impacted me deeply immediately, but I have continually gone back to that statement over the past 7 years to help me gain perspective on where I am placing my priorities. Where am I really getting my joy from? Am I living my life in a way that aligns with that? 

This post is really just about how the Lord is reminding me to find my joy in Him this week,instead of looking to other things. It started a few days ago during discipleship when our pastor was leading us through John 15…

⁹ “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. ¹⁰ If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. ¹¹ I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. ¹² My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.¹³ Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends."

Alan (my pastor)’s main discussion was about the trinity and how it is the perfect example of satisfaction in relationships… that’s a blog post for another time… but I really camped out on this concept of having my joy made complete in Christ. Jesus experienced complete and perfect intimacy with Christ; He was constantly immersed in His Father’s love. He offers us the SAME THING: v9“As the Father has loved me, SO HAVE I LOVED YOU” He later says that the reason that he has told us this is so that His v11“JOY may be in us, and that our JOY may be complete”. Our joy is complete in Jesus if we love Him, and if we remain in His love.

 

The thing is we have to choose to remain in His love. We have to choose to obey His commands and “love each other as He loved us”. Think about what that is really asking of us. Jesus lived a perfect life, was tortured, took on the burden of every sin from the world, and died a criminal’s death at the very hands of those that He was saving. WHY!? Because He LOVED us that much. Even as I write that, tears come my eyes. I am so unworthy of that love, and He did it anyway. 

I am called to love others in the way that Jesus loved me: sacrificially, graciously, and humbly. But let’s be honest, I don’t always do that. In fact I hardly ever do that because I forget the incredible display of love that Jesus had for me, and when I forget my focus slips from Him and I find my joy in other things. That temporary joy always fails me and leads me back to the foot of the cross where I am once again reminded of what my life should really be about.

This is the background of my phone ^… because I need this reminder daily. All of the things listed and crossed off are sources that I can look to for temporary fulfillment that I may think is joy. But time and time again I learn that seeking these things leads me in the opposite direction of where true joy is found.    Jesus.

Dear Lord thank you for reminding me that true joy is made complete in You. And You are the only thing in my life that does not change. You are completely independent of circumstances. Your love for me overwhelms my soul and brings me to my knees. Help me to choose to remain in Your love more and more every day. I want to live my life in such a way that clearly indicates that my joy is found in you alone, not the fleeting pursuits of this world. I love you, amen.