Not only did Jesus want us to have His peace, He also wanted us to have His joy. “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.” (Jn 15:11) What was the source of Jesus’ joy? I think it all had to do with the Father. “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love.” (Jn 15:9-10)<\/p>\n
Jesus did not find obedience to His Father burdensome but rather the essential way to abide in a relationship defined by love. Oh if we could see that God is the source of all good gifts… joy, peace, hope, and love! Jesus even tied this gift of joy to the Father’s answer to prayer: “I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name… Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.” (Jn 16:23-24)<\/p>\n
Two-year-old John has become quite intrigued with manger scenes these days. In a friend’s home he recently found a “baby Jesus” with swaddling clothes that droop across the infant’s thigh. Having recently received a shot in his thigh at the doctor’s office, John is convinced that Jesus suffered the same painful experience. “Got shot,” he pointed as he held baby Jesus up for my inspection. It did look a bit like a bandage on the little leg, so I didn’t try to explain first century baby-wear. John’s mom, Terri, lets him stay at our house every now and then. Last week, when I arrived home from work, John stood at the door asking, “Go see baby Jesus?” When I said, “OK, let’s go,” you should have seen his reaction. John threw up his hands and danced around, then he grabbed my hand and we hopped in the car to drive to a manger scene not far from our house.<\/p>\n
Somehow, I think Jesus wants us to have this child-like joy. He prayed before being arrested, “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.” How do I receive such a blessing? Maybe we sing the answer during the Christmas season: “Joy to the world the Lord is come, let earth receive her King. Let every heart prepare Him room…” John the Baptist once said, “The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete.” Do I prepare room in my heart for the Giver of joy? Do I wait and listen for His voice? John the Baptist proclaimed a wonderful secret: “He must become greater; I must become less.”<\/p>\n
Perhaps the Father would whisper a Christmas message to us today: “‘He rules the world with truth and grace…’ My Son is the only path to true joy. Let Him take His rightful place on the throne of your heart. Follow John’s example and become less so your Savior can become more. He will bring you to Me and your joy will be complete.”<\/p>\n
“His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord!'” Matthew 25:21<\/p>\n
Merry Christmas!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Not only did Jesus want us to have His peace, He also wanted us to have His joy. “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.” (Jn 15:11) What was the source of Jesus’ joy? I think it all had to do with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-joy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=462"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1493,"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462\/revisions\/1493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}