There was a lot of joy in our family last week.
Gail found us an eight-bedroom lodge in Green Mountain, NC, and we invited all our kids and their families to join us. We ended up with 11 adults and five grandkids.
There were games and s’mores at a campfire, trips to Mount Mitchell and the North Carolina Arboretum, hikes in the woods and swimming in the North Toe River, dinners with all 16 of us at one long table, quiet conversations, fireworks, and lots of laughing, hugs, and “I love yous.” More than once, it felt like my heart might burst because I was so full of love for these people and joy in us all being together.
I am continuing a series of meditations on how Jesus exhibited the fruit of the Spirit as encouragement for us to likewise grow in our experience of the Spirit in our lives. If we want to lay aside sin and run the race with endurance, then let us look to Jesus, consider him, and seek the grace to follow in his steps.
In the last devotional, I quoted Megan Hill and Melissa Kruger who wrote that Jesus was the only perfectly loving, joyful, peaceful man. They wrote in Fruitful: Cultivating a Spiritual Harvest that Won’t Leave You Empty, “He was patient where we aren’t, kind where we fail, and good where we stumble. His is the perfect righteousness for all who lack faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. As we abide in him, we become like him, bearing good fruit that will last.”
The more deeply we abide in Jesus, the more will the Spirit’s fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control grow in us.
We meditated on love last time. This time, we focus on joy. What gives Jesus joy?
In Luke 15, Jesus used three parables to describe something that gives him joy. A shepherd rejoices when his lost sheep is found, a woman rejoices when a lost coin is found, and a father celebrates when his lost son returns home.
It gives Jesus joy when sinners repent, when those who were lost are found, when they come to the Lord and become his disciples.
Another time, Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do” (Luke 10:21).
It gives Jesus joy when his disciples learn the truth.
While in the upper room with the apostles, on his last night with them before his arrest and crucifixion, Jesus said, “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. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you,” John 15:10-12.
It gives Jesus joy when his disciples keep God’s commands and love one another.
It gives Jesus joy for lost sinners to repent and come to the Lord, for them to learn and obey the truth, and especially for them to love one another. In other words, it gives Jesus joy for sinners to become disciples and follow him.
Jesus’s joy is focused outward, rooted in the fulfillment of the will of the Father for the good of those called by him.
These are not the only things that can and should give joy. Every good gift comes to us from the Father of heavenly lights (James 1:17). We can and should rejoice when God gives us good gifts, like a week with your children and grandchildren.
But meditating on the things that give Jesus joy should likewise orient our focus outward to find joy in the salvation and spiritual growth of others.
I read something this week I wanted to close with.
Jack Miller was the founder of the New Life Churches, World Harvest Mission (now known as Serge), Sonship discipleship training, and was a professor at Westminster Theological Seminary. Scotty Smith wrote this week,
Seven things Jack Miller pounded into me I’ll never over-hear.
1. Live close to Jesus.
2. Constantly preach the Gospel to yourself.
3. Walk faithfully with a “Gospel posse.”
4. Seek to love well all the way Home.
5. Be the chief repenter in any relationship.
6. “Risk or rust.” (That is, live by faith, not fear).
7. Ache for heaven and serve in the moment.
Much love, Barry
Beautiful, Barry! I know his delight was only and always to please his father too...a man of sorrows merged with deepest joy. I saw recently in Isaiah 53 two things he "saw" and I think he saw them at the same time always. He saw his crushing the enemy's filthy vile head in the cross as well as seeing us, who he birthed free in the process. I think there's such a truth here for me to always link the joy set before us to whatever the trial we are in. We separate everything. He doesn't. I love the ideas especially at the end!!!
Thank you Barry! You are such a resource of good teaching and illustrations from your life and other's writings-Praise the Lord for you and Gail :)