Colossians 1:11
Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;
How is it that we as humans could ever be joyful on this planet? We are aware of the emptiness of it all, and yet we strive for that which we call empty. It is humiliating how much we beg for things for the purpose of filling some kind of hole that only Jesus can fill. We are never content when we try those things out, not that we thought they would bring us fulfillment, but maybe we just wanted a little piece of happiness we knew would be fleeting. I am fully aware of the fact that anything apart Jesus will not bring me any kind of lasting happiness, but I still let myself be ripped apart by my own mind on whether or not I should participate in a particular activity that is not pleasing to God. I am utterly ashamed of myself because not only do I know the truth and act contrary to it, but I continue to do so knowing the results of my actions before I commit them. I don't believe in a solitary metaphorical hole that Jesus can fill. I believe we are an array of doors and mazes, winding staircases and secret cellars. We challenge people to catch us doing whatever wrong we are committing, and maybe we even think because of how well we are hiding things, that we can conceal things from the Holy Spirit in us. Inside of secret rooms, hidden behind secret doors in my heart there is dormant evil waiting for its appetite to be wetted. Often times I find myself ignoring the existence of such a curse until I feel like drawing some twisted form of happiness from it. The rest of the time, I painfully ignore the Holy Spirit when it goes to those doors and knocks. We are all cursed by our sin; every one of us. The really sad part of the whole thing is that Jesus broke that curse and is trying to help us clear out the remnants of it. We hold onto those remnants not because we are scared, but because we do not love Jesus enough to get rid of them. At least, I know that is the cause in my particular case.
Every metaphorical door is a battle; a hard fought battle at that. Jesus is trying to win that battle for us but we inhibit His efforts and plead for Him to have mercy on that thing we find ourselves drawn to. He knows that for every room He empties, we will be flooded with a new measure of joy. I find this to be a good time to explain my thoughts on joy. Joy is something that only God can grant us. It is an internal possession that Jesus fills us with. Happiness can be granted from any form of worldly fulfillment, but it is deceitfully fleeting. Joy is an everlasting side effect of what Christ does for us and is directly proportional with how much we love Jesus and let Him clean us up. When we have joy, we are not dependent on the circumstances we find ourselves in. This sets us apart from the rest of humanity, and that is exactly what it is intended to do. How could anyone be happy in appearance after being beaten, bloody and thrown into a jail cell covered in all kinds of unpleasant things. We find such joy in the book of acts and thus cannot deny its existence or the potential joy we could have in our own lives. Long suffering both physical and mental in nature will utterly devour any form of happiness in anyone's life. It is the joy we find in Christ that helps us carry on through the most horrific circumstances. Christ never told us being followers of Him would be easy. What we find in the Bible speaks the opposite. We are naive to not think persecution will befall us if we are walking in the commands of someone the world despised and still despises to this day. John 7:7 "The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil."
Sometimes we won't know why terrible things are happening to us. We will expect an explanation from God. We will try our best to restrain thoughts such as "if you are a good and loving God, how could you let this happen to me?". These thoughts may even evolve into words which spew from our mouths full of malice and hate for the God we profess to love. Matthew 11:6 "But blessed is [he], who is not be offended by me." But if we let ourselves come to this place, we will soon be overwhelmed by the love that Jesus showed for us. That He would be tortured and defiled beyond recognition on behalf of the most selfish and cruel race on this planet. That the king of everything would for no logical reason step down from His throne on our Behalf and let us do with Him what we wished. I can find joy through Jesus who dwells in me, knowing of His long suffering and remembering what He did for me, and what I did and do to Him. He gives me joy through the most difficult circumstances and I have found that the more rooms I let Him fill, the more filled with joy I am.
Application: take a walk and think and pray.
Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;
How is it that we as humans could ever be joyful on this planet? We are aware of the emptiness of it all, and yet we strive for that which we call empty. It is humiliating how much we beg for things for the purpose of filling some kind of hole that only Jesus can fill. We are never content when we try those things out, not that we thought they would bring us fulfillment, but maybe we just wanted a little piece of happiness we knew would be fleeting. I am fully aware of the fact that anything apart Jesus will not bring me any kind of lasting happiness, but I still let myself be ripped apart by my own mind on whether or not I should participate in a particular activity that is not pleasing to God. I am utterly ashamed of myself because not only do I know the truth and act contrary to it, but I continue to do so knowing the results of my actions before I commit them. I don't believe in a solitary metaphorical hole that Jesus can fill. I believe we are an array of doors and mazes, winding staircases and secret cellars. We challenge people to catch us doing whatever wrong we are committing, and maybe we even think because of how well we are hiding things, that we can conceal things from the Holy Spirit in us. Inside of secret rooms, hidden behind secret doors in my heart there is dormant evil waiting for its appetite to be wetted. Often times I find myself ignoring the existence of such a curse until I feel like drawing some twisted form of happiness from it. The rest of the time, I painfully ignore the Holy Spirit when it goes to those doors and knocks. We are all cursed by our sin; every one of us. The really sad part of the whole thing is that Jesus broke that curse and is trying to help us clear out the remnants of it. We hold onto those remnants not because we are scared, but because we do not love Jesus enough to get rid of them. At least, I know that is the cause in my particular case.
Every metaphorical door is a battle; a hard fought battle at that. Jesus is trying to win that battle for us but we inhibit His efforts and plead for Him to have mercy on that thing we find ourselves drawn to. He knows that for every room He empties, we will be flooded with a new measure of joy. I find this to be a good time to explain my thoughts on joy. Joy is something that only God can grant us. It is an internal possession that Jesus fills us with. Happiness can be granted from any form of worldly fulfillment, but it is deceitfully fleeting. Joy is an everlasting side effect of what Christ does for us and is directly proportional with how much we love Jesus and let Him clean us up. When we have joy, we are not dependent on the circumstances we find ourselves in. This sets us apart from the rest of humanity, and that is exactly what it is intended to do. How could anyone be happy in appearance after being beaten, bloody and thrown into a jail cell covered in all kinds of unpleasant things. We find such joy in the book of acts and thus cannot deny its existence or the potential joy we could have in our own lives. Long suffering both physical and mental in nature will utterly devour any form of happiness in anyone's life. It is the joy we find in Christ that helps us carry on through the most horrific circumstances. Christ never told us being followers of Him would be easy. What we find in the Bible speaks the opposite. We are naive to not think persecution will befall us if we are walking in the commands of someone the world despised and still despises to this day. John 7:7 "The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil."
Sometimes we won't know why terrible things are happening to us. We will expect an explanation from God. We will try our best to restrain thoughts such as "if you are a good and loving God, how could you let this happen to me?". These thoughts may even evolve into words which spew from our mouths full of malice and hate for the God we profess to love. Matthew 11:6 "But blessed is [he], who is not be offended by me." But if we let ourselves come to this place, we will soon be overwhelmed by the love that Jesus showed for us. That He would be tortured and defiled beyond recognition on behalf of the most selfish and cruel race on this planet. That the king of everything would for no logical reason step down from His throne on our Behalf and let us do with Him what we wished. I can find joy through Jesus who dwells in me, knowing of His long suffering and remembering what He did for me, and what I did and do to Him. He gives me joy through the most difficult circumstances and I have found that the more rooms I let Him fill, the more filled with joy I am.
Application: take a walk and think and pray.
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