Joy in Jesus

As I was praising the Lord this morning during my shower I began to have a realization about life, God, the devil and man. I realized who my greatest enemy in life is. The devil, demons and forces of darkness sound horrible and frightening and they are, but they are not my greatest enemy. The greatest enemy has always been myself. I used to often wonder why God put us here on this world. God wanted relationship with man, an awesome indescribable relationship of love between God and man. However, in order for this to happen man would have to choose to want God and God would have to choose to want man. Without these two voluntary elements the relationship is contrived and cannot truly exist. So, God made the world and setup this thing we know as life for man to have. Life and the things that transpire during it happen according to cold, hard, rigid laws. There is room for great joys and peace as well as great tragedies and torment. The purpose of this hostile environment is for man to meet God and for a relationship between them to be fostered. The kind of man that rejects God and desires to be wicked has made his choice and God will respect it, because any other relationship with that man would be contrived and not real. But this wicked man is evil and must be apart from God forever. But the man who hopes in the Lord and clings to him has found the purpose of his existence and has fulfilled God's highest hopes for him. To him the trials and burdens of this life are nothing but minor troubles. In other words they are "light and momentary troubles which are achieving an eternal glory that far outweighs them all". Because these very troubles that we generally consider bad are actually being used to present us with situations where we must choose whether to cling more tightly to God through them or not. This is why James writes "Consider it pure joy when you encounter trials of many kinds because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance and perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete not lacking anything". In Isaiah it says, "Those who hope in the Lord will soar on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not be faint". This is because our strength and our joy is in our hope in the Lord who is able to meet all our needs and carry us through to the end. God has such a powerful furious love for man that we can hardly comprehend it. He even sent his son on the cross to pay for our wicked mistakes and ways that we might still have a chance at being with him! God always loves us, even the lost ones that have chosen the way of wickedness, but not their wicked ways. If you begin to express love toward God that is genuine and set your focus on him in this way he will reciprocate and you will have a revelation of his love for you as well. This is why the scriptures say "You will seek me and find me if you seek me with all your heart" (Jeremiah 29:13).

I have never really liked rain at all. It is just so dark and melancholy and wet. :) I like sunshine much better, for it is like joy and fun. This morning there is a heavy dark rain. I realize though that even when there is heavy dark rain in life, when I cling to Christ, there will always be a bright warm sunshine in my heart. (I know that sounds kind of cheesy, but it really is so true.) This is in fact the key to making it through life. This is the highest hope God has for us is to cling to him through the darkness trusting that he will see us through. The process of going through it strengthens our ability to hold on to Him and results in growth of our relationship with Him.

The most dangerous enemy we have is our own neglect of God over time. No matter how intense the fire of an enemy that is brought to our door, our God is able and willing to fight it back for us on one condition. That is that we cling to him through it and trust him for the help. This very trial achieves for us a closer bond with God which is worth more than silver or gold. Jesus is our high priest, our friend, our King and the sacrifice for our sins. He is the author and perfecter of our faith. No one comes to the father, but through him. He is our light and our salvation in this dark world. Sometimes we forget God until there is pain in our lives and then we try to ask for his help and be buddy buddy with him. He still loves us and will use that to draw us, but how much better when we have already been hoping in him and loving him before the trial. In some ways it seems that all of life is a trial. There is no drug, no friendship, no relationship, no food, time of sleep, television show/movie or amusement park roller coaster ride that can ever fulfill my heart like I deeply long for it to be filled. There is only one satisfaction for my soul and it is through the love of God and intimacy of his Holy Spirit living in me made possible by Christ and his sacrifice for me on the cross! My hope is always and forever in Him. Our doubt is really and always has been the only true enemy for us. When we doubt his love, his ability to deliver us, his big plan that is in place for the world, his existence or anything that is true about him we lose our connection with him. For connection in relationships is built on trust. And that is what we must have... a relationship with the living God. That is what our souls long for and will never be truly satisfied until they find. This connection to Jesus we have is our strength, our authority, our power, our love and our joy.