Joy

Good morning dear sisters. We are about one week out from our Refresh Retreat. We are asking Abba Father to help those who are to attend this retreat but have not signed up because they are unsure, or wary or because they allow the lack of comfort (physical, emotional and spiritual) to keep them from saying yes to listen to His Voice and attend. The retreat itself is just the conduit for the work He would like to do in us individually and corporately. We all have expectations as to what a retreat is, or should look like. We are praying He and He alone would be our expectation. We are praying that those whom He has called would listen and come, and those who are attending would lay down all expectations except that He would speak, and we would have ears to hear and by His Spirit, walk out what He says. My personal prayer is that those in whom the Spirit is drawing to walk a more intimate walk with Him, would not miss this. He is the Giver, and He gets the glory for what He desires to impart to us through all the elements at the retreat.

These Things Have I Spoken Unto You, That My Joy May Be in You, and That Your Joy May Be Fulfilled—John 15.11

If any one asks the question, “How can I be a happy Christian?” our Lord’s answer is very simple: “These things,” about the Vine and the branches, “I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be fulfilled.” “You cannot have My joy without My life. Abide in Me, and let Me abide in you, and My joy will be in you.” All healthy life is a thing of joy and beauty; live undividedly the branch life; you will have His joy in full measure.

To many Christians the thought of a life wholly abiding in Christ is one of strain and painful effort. They cannot see that the strain and effort only come, as long as we do not yield ourselves unreservedly to the life of Christ in us. The very first words of the parable are not yet opened up to them: “I am the true Vine; I undertake all and provide for all; I ask nothing of the branch but that it yields wholly to Me, and allows Me to do all. I engage to make and keep the branch all that it ought to be.” Ought it not to be an infinite and unceasing joy to have the Vine thus work all, and to know that it is none less than the blessed Son of God in His love who is each moment bearing us and maintaining our life?

That My joy may be in you—We are to have Christ’s own joy in us. And what is Christ’s own joy? There is no joy like love. There is no joy but love. Christ had just spoken of the Father’s love and His own abiding in it, and of His having loved us with that same love. His joy is nothing but the joy of love, of being loved and of loving. It was the joy of receiving His Father’s love and abiding in it, and then the joy of passing on that love and pouring it out on sinners. It is this joy He wants us to share: the joy of being loved of the Father and of Him; the joy of in our turn loving and living for those around us. This is just the joy of being truly branches: abiding in His love, and then giving up ourselves in love to bear fruit for others. Let us accept His life, as He gives it in us as the Vine, His joy will be ours: the joy of abiding in His love, the joy of loving like Him, of loving with His love.

And that your joy may be fulfilled —That it may be complete, that you may be filled with it. How sad that we should so need to be reminded that as God alone is the fountain of all joy, “God our exceeding joy,” the only way to be perfectly happy is to have as much of God, as much of His will and fellowship, as possible! Religion is meant to be in everyday life a thing of unspeakable joy. And why do so many complain that it is not so? Because they do not believe that there is no joy like the joy of abiding in Christ and in His love, and being branches through whom He can pour out His love on a dying world. Oh, that Christ’s voice might reach the heart of every young Christian, and persuade him to believe that His joy is the only true joy, that His joy can become ours and truly fill us, and that the sure and simple way of living in it is—only this—to abide as branches in Him our heavenly Vine.Let the truth enter deep into us—as long as our joy is not full, it is a sign that we do not yet know our heavenly Vine aright; every desire for a fuller joy must only urge us to abide more simply and more fully in His love.

My joy—your joy. In this too it is: as the Vine, so the branch; all the Vine in the branch.Thy joy is our joy—Thy joy in us, and our joy fulfilled. Blessed Lord, fill me with Thy joy—the joy of being loved and blessed with a divine love; the joy of loving and blessing others.

How deep the Father’s love for us, how vast beyond all measure, that He should give His only Son, to make a wretch His treasure….. Oh to rest as a branch is our desire O God, to know that we know that we are loved, to know that we can truly love others with Your love. Abba, for those who struggle to believe they are fully known by You and fully loved by You, would you impart to them what they need to receive this truth fully? Would you bring clarity and help us see the walls of protection we build to protect our hearts, to protect us from further wounding? Lord those walls might keep our emotions from overwhelming us, might keep us from being hurt by others, but they also keep You out Abba. We cannot selectively build walls of protection in our hearts without keeping You out as well. O God, You are the gentle Shepherd. Gently remove the bricks we have placed to protect wounded areas of our hearts, and bring Your healing in. Lift our eyes to see Your face Jesus. Let us look deeply in, and believe once for all that You are good, and You mean good to us, and You desire us to receive all the love You would pour into our hearts, and then be the conduit to pour out onto others. We cannot help but have joy when we believe we are truly, wonderfully, wholly loved by You. Allow the painful truth of our lack of joy reveal our lack of belief that we are truly, wonderfully and wholly loved by You. We believe, O help our unbelief again, and again, and again until we believe it. Then may we walk in that joy of believing love, and may we be Your agent of grace as You pour out Your love through us onto and into others by the power of Your Spirit, the Seal of Your Love for us. We pray in Jesus’ name, amen.