How Joy Is for You
“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full” (John 15:9-11).
Do you know I like to bring joy to your work? Do you know there can be fun and lightheartedness in what we do together? Do you know I am the one who invented music and laughter and dance?
Laughter, now that’s something I love. And your smile—it doesn’t have to be an outward smile; I know how you are made to smile, my love. You, my daughter, are made to have joy in this life. And it is here, for you. It feels like it is hiding, I know. It feels like it is difficult to attain—or, when you’ve attained it, it is fleeting.
But I am not fleeting. I am not leaving you. And consider this: If I am the only one who can bring you joy, if joy is the space I inhabit, if I am with you and my presence is with you always, then joy is with you, too.
Want Me to help you to find it?
Take a deep breath now. Joy is being with Me. Nothing else. The practice for you is being with Me more often than you are. To find joy in what you do, you practice being with Me. And then, by being with Me, you make choices toward things I have prepared for you to do. You see what those things are, and you do them. And even if the work I call you to do is difficult and challenging and stretches you beyond what you thought you could ever possibly do on your own, still, you are in my joy, for you are choosing Me in it; you are working alongside Me.
Here’s how I bring joy to you: choosing to be with Me means you are choosing to surrender every other space that previously inhabited your heart. I want to inhabit you fully. You are made to be with Me, fully. Joy is only possible when the parts of you that you were unwilling to relinquish to Me are killed. The old self in you needs to die so the new self can breathe deeply in the new space with Me.
I create within you a new space, a new self, and that is where your joy is. And when you choose to be with Me, you are rejecting the old self and letting the new self thrive. Your joy exists in the space where the two of us get to be together. And that place is within you, in your new self, and nowhere else. You are made to be with Me, and anything that gets in the way of us being together is a choice you get to make. Let Me in, and I will take care of it. Let Me in, and I will clear away the dark places of the old self to let the new self breathe. I do the work once you choose Me.
So choose Me again. And choose joy again. Today, and then tomorrow, and also, when you lay your head down to sleep.
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We all mess up and hurt others, even the ones we love dearly. And because of that, we have to apologize, sometimes daily! But what does a true, authentic apology look like? Maybe that sounds like a silly question (doesn’t everyone know the difference between a true and false apology?), but the truth is, we’re all guilty of moments when our sorry’s weren’t as sincere as they should have been. Which is why I so appreciated Debra Fileta’s clear, step-by-step guidance on the art of genuine apology.
“In the night, I do not leave you. When the darkness is loud against you, an insidious whisper of deceit, a truth disfigured and warped so it feels right but is so, so far from love’s truth, I am your guide. I am your protector. I am your shield and sword. I am your breastplate and all the armor you need. But my help only works when you use it. My truth only works when you hear it and let it sing out of you—when it is expressed by your choices, by your life.” → From FLAG No. 7, “For When Your Heart Hurts.” All I can do in response to these words is hold out my hands and say, “Yes, Lord. A thousand times, yes. I receive from You whatever You give me now.” What about you, reader?
A couple of months ago, we celebrated Valentine’s Day, when our culture sets aside a whole 24 hours to celebrate romantic love with candy hearts, flowers, chocolate, and rom-coms. So much of this is admirable and beautiful—because our God is the Author of romance, and He thought of it first. But what exactly is our culture teaching us, even subconsciously, about romance? And does it align with God’s truth? Here are three lies that Kali Gibson says rom-coms teach us about love—and three truths that are stronger and more lovely.
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