Get Full of This

What’s the point of life if you can’t enjoy it? Enjoy being you. Enjoy your direction and whatever it is you have around you. Enjoy whoever is around you. What is life if there is just angst and grinding and pain and persevering?

“Here is what I have seen to be good and fitting: to eat, to drink and enjoy oneself in all one’s labor in which he toils under the sun during the few years of his life which God has given for him; this is his reward”.

Eccelsiastes 5:18

I continually find joy to be a great equalizer in the faith. The accumulation of knowledge, for me, is far easier than living joy! But, like the gratitude of Thanksgiving, the joy of Christmas can be slippery. Isn’t it curious that the things best for us like gratitude and joy can be the most difficult to live? No one must be taught to get angry in traffic! But most of us have to be taught how to live thankful and joyful. So bizarre. Such is the frustrating, soul sucking reality of sin.

So, what about you? In this Christmas season of Starbucks red “not Christmas” cups and singing “Joy to the World,” what would it take for you to overflow with joy? What would it take for you to become a person of joy – not just appetizers or during a holiday season?

For the next few weeks, I want to see what kind of movement the Holy Spirit can stir in you and me to experience some joy on your journey to becoming a joyful person. Is this an odd thought to you – God your Father wants you to be a joyful person. He did not send His Son and fill you with His Spirit so you would be…not joy. Because our Father wants you to be joyful, we know that the Holy Spirit wants to work in you to change you.

Let’s get to work.

First, becoming joyful is not your responsibility. You cannot make yourself joyful. You can certainly contribute to the cause, but you are not responsible for generating enough self-will to turn you from whatever you are into one overflowing with joy. Your joy is first the Spirit’s work! That the Holy Spirit works to make us full of joy is super cool to me!

Second, I think you need to track your history with, and attitude about, joy. Were you raised in a joyful family? Were you allowed to express joy? How comfortable are you with the prospect of experiencing joy as the normal condition of your life?

Here we want to take advantage of the Holy Spirit in us. He knows each of us better than we know ourselves. Some of your history you will easily know. However, pray. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you see the obstacles you have to experiencing this kind of overflow. Be still. Breathe. Let Him speak.

I wonder if you struggle with joy because…

It’s not productive

You don’t like yourself

You were not raised in it

It’s childish

Satan has stolen it from you

I am guessing that one of the obstacles you have is your perception of God. So…

Third, evaluate your view of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. If you do not see the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as joyful People, then you will not look to them for leading you to joy. Consider the following verses:

Father – Romans 15:13, “Now may the God (our Father) of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing…”

Jesus – John 15:11, “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.”

Holy Spirit – Galatians 5:22, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy…”

That’s a lot of God-joy! Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are full of joy. Their relationships with each other are joyful. And they adopt us out of darkness into their joy-filled family so that we can be full of joy!

Exercises for week #1

Take a look at your history of joy. How does your track record encourage or hinder you from living joy today? Ask the Holy Spirit to show you whatever He wants you to see that keeps you from free-flowing joy.

Soak in images of our Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit radiating joy. See Jesus smiling. Hear Them laughing. Allow those images to make you uncomfortable or awkward. Journal what you experience.

Joy is a Trinitarian gift. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit work to move in you in such a way that joy begins to ooze from your heart! Oozing joy!

Ooze on the way to OVERFLOW!

Re-read that Ecclesiastes verse above and enjoy your day.

On the journey to joy with you this Christmas season…