Joy.

We cannot contain our joy from You.

A couple weeks ago I was listening to music while journaling & reflecting on what the Lord has been teaching me & walking me through.

The song I was listening to just kept repeating that line: we cannot contain our joy from You. 

I stopped everything I was doing & started thinking about that. 

“Does the joy of Jesus Christ overflow out of me? Is His joy so evident in my life that it cannot be contained?”

Because it should.
My life should be consumed with Christ & the joy that comes from knowing Him, & FROM HIM KNOWING ME.
The hope, grace, love, & sanctification I find in Christ should translate to an overwhelming joy that literally EXPLODES out of me.

As I look at my own life, I don’t often see that. As I was reflecting on this a dear friend sent me the daily devotion from “My Utmost For His Highest”
I opened it to see the title “My Joy…Your Joy” 
Okay Jesus, let’s talk about joy.

It began with John 15:11--

“These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may remain in you, & that your joy may be full.” 

The joy of Jesus was His absolute self-surrender & self-sacrifice to His Father, THE JOY OF DOING WHAT THE FATHER SENT HIM TO DO. We should delight in doing the will of God. Jesus found joy in serving the Father, in following in what His Father had planned for Him to do.

Jesus wants our joy to be LIKE HIS. Jesus PRAYED that my joy would mirror His own.

Have I allowed Jesus to introduce that joy to me? Have I allowed Him to work in me & USE ME in way that I have experienced this joy?

This world tries to tell me that my joy comes from health, circumstances, location, or seeing God’s work succeed. 

But joy, true joy, is found in living out a relationship + ONENESS with God like Jesus had; in understanding God perfecting, in seeking Him.

Jesus was CLOSE to the Father, He knew His Father’s heart. He took time, even in the busiest seasons, even in the hard seasons, to meet with God. TO POUR OUT HIS HEART, to ask for what he needed, to pray. (And even pray OVER US, this literally blows my mind.)

The first thing that takes me away from the joy of Jesus is overthinking my current circumstances. By dwelling on where I am & what I am doing instead of taking the time I know I need with the Father. By overanalyzing & taking things into my own hands. 

I get so caught up in my own cares & I forget WHO I AM in Christ & WHAT I AM CALLED TO.  

I stop living with the mindset “Your will be done, Oh God.” And instead focus on my own motives. 

Instead of living my purpose on this earth- TO PROCLAIM THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST & BE THE HANDS & FEET OF JESUS- I live for my purposes, for my worries, for this world. 

When we have a RIGHT relationship with God. Living in ONENESS, COMING BEFORE HIM for more knowledge, more of HIM-- That’s where we find joy.

In pouring out our hearts to Him, in asking for more of Him.
When we do this the Word says, “Out of you will flow rivers of living waters.”
When we live in ONENESS with God. His joy will pour out of us. Explode out of us.

I need to stop living for myself, stop thinking I can do it alone, thinking I am enough & instead live my life hidden in the Father’s heart, living as a fountain in which He can pour His living waters & watching as His joy EXPLODES out of me & blesses others without me even knowing it. 

((Snippets & thoughts taken from "My Utmost For His Highest" Check it out here!))