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 “Thus we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete” – 1 John. 1:4

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It is amazing that we can miss the joy of the Lord by simple neglect of such truths. John says that his writing about the Father gives him joy or makes his joy complete. John can experience joy just by penning down words that explain the Father in His truest form. Spectacular! How could we miss this? This means for John, joy had nothing to do with how he feels but rather how he understood and expressed the Father. I confess with my whole heart that “JOY” is the same for me. My joy is related to knowing Him and expressing Him. Amen!

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Meditate on this fact - Does the understanding of the Father and communication of His reality fill one with joy, or is joy so shallow that it is connected to only satisfying oneself? Does not the scriptures have more to talk about joy than just how one feels emotionally? Are the fruit of the Spirit fleshly generated feelings or are they the Spirit's empowerment of the Father's divine characters in man? Is joy a dictionary term only and restricted to how we feel or is it a divine character and biblically defined with definitional contours outside the scope of our dictionaries?

 

Joy is deeply rooted in knowing the Lord Jesus. In fact Jesus’s High Priestly prayer in John 17 says that, to know the only true God and the one whom He has sent - Jesus Christ, is Eternal Life. And John's expression of Eternal Life as testimony to his audience completes his joy.

Let our day, week, month, year and every breath be rooted in the below truths about joy –

1. Our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ

2. One’s understanding of the word of life (Eternal Life) which was with the Father

If we start experiencing joy because of this, our financial down turns, family issues, personal problems or any life’s disasters cannot affect our joy, because it has nothing to do with me or how I feel. It is my relationship with the Lord. It's no wonder that Paul could boldly say – 'For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord .'(Rom. 8:38-39).

 

Further meditation –

Matt. 2:10, 13:44, Luke. 2:10, John. 3:29, 15:11, 16:21-22, 17:13, Rom. 14:17, 1 Thess. 2:20, 1 Thess. 3:9, Heb. 10:34, 1 Pet. 1:8, 2 John. 12