Joy

Good Morning,

John 15:9-17 (NIV)
"As the Father has loved me, so have I 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. 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. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. This is my command: Love each other."

Some days there is little or no joy in my life. Some days, I'm sure, there is little or no joy in your life, as well. On those days we find little to be joyful about, I think, and we're pretty much unhappy, down, depressed, and certainly don't feel filled with love...even God's love. On those days I often wonder why I feel as I do; why when even just yesterday I was fine, pretty much happy and satisfied with my life and fairly joyful that I'm alive. But today, well, it's not that way. I pray and ask God why He doesn't appear to be there for me on those days and why it seems that He's taken His love and my joy away from me. I even rail at Him and I cry out to Him on those days. At least in my mind and heart, I do. I don't feel that I'm the only Christian person who feels this way from time to time. I think that even you, on some days and at some times, have these same feelings.

Today, I believe, I'm given at least a part of the answer to my questions, if not, perhaps, even all of the answer. Jesus said to us, "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. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete." That seems straight forward, doesn't it? But, there's more to this section of Scripture than just that, although, too often, we read just these couple of verses and don't read and contemplate the rest of what Jesus was telling us. He goes on to say, not just once but two times in this short section, what His command IS. He is explicit in what He's teaching us. He says, "My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you." And, once more, He tells us, "This is my command: Love each other."

Do you see it? Do you feel and understand why there are times when the Lord's joy seems to have departed from our lives? He tells us that our joy will be complete if we love each other as He, our Lord and Savior, has loved us. He is very clear when He tells us that we are to love each other. So, what becomes clear in my heart and mind is that when I disobey His command to love you, and all of my brothers and sisters in Christ...perhaps we might even add ALL of mankind in this...when I don't love as I should, then my joy is anything BUT complete.

That's what this section of Scripture is telling me today. It's telling me clearly that when the joy isn't with me that I think I ought to feel, that I might even have had completely just yesterday, then it is very likely that I haven't been obedient to Jesus' command to me that I love you...at least not as I should love you. "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends."

Do I love you all the time, every day, as I should? Do I lift you up and help you whenever you need me? Am I there for you no matter what? Am I, really, willing to lay down my life for you? Sadly, I'm like most human beings and I cannot say "Yes" to those questions, at least not unequivocally. There are times when my love isn't as it should be. Those are the times, I think, when God takes the joy in my life away for a time and is trying to tell me I need to examine the love I have for you, for everyone.

I believe that Jesus' words are true and real and alive. They teach me this very day even as they taught the disciples that Jesus spoke to then. I need to learn. I need to obey.

Simply put, I need to love more and more completely.

Love, peace, and blessings,

David