Plugged in to joy!

John 15

Joy is one of those things that I see less and less, in our culture. Everyone is driven so intensely that the idea of a simple joy that brings and maintains a contentment smile to your spirit is not even possible for many. Even in Jesus’ day the intensity of daily living in an oppressive culture had a tendency to rob even those closest to Jesus of their joy.

Jesus plan is for us to have and live in joy. Not only a joy that simply gets us by but one that will come in fullness and help complete us. Everything in this world fights with God’s plan. The second law of thermodynamics guarantees that everything is falling apart and getting worse. As followers of Christ, while this world may fall apart we should grow in grace, love, joy and all of the fruit of the Spirit. Jesus gave us the plan of how to overcome and live in His fullness.

God’s plan is simple. When we come to Christ, know that we are part of the family of God. As a member of this family we must stay connected. Jesus says He is the true vine, Isaiah 5 calls Israel the vine Jesus is saying it is no longer about birthright but relationship.

As we stay in relationship, we are connected to life. Everything that is in the life or plan of Jesus we can be part of. A natural outgrowth of being connected is fruit. The vine doesn’t have to struggle to bear fruit it naturally comes with being connected to the root. If you are really connected, you want to do whatever you can to nurture the relationship between you and the main root because life comes through the main root to you. Jesus, as the main root, wants to give us all that He has. We make the decision to wither and die when we choose to cut ourselves from the main root.

Joy comes from the root. Whatever is in the root is in us. When Jesus said greater works would we do, He gave us the tools to do those things. Coming straight from Jesus is the Helper, the Holy Spirit who will empower us to do great things. As we daily surrender to the Father’s will for our lives, as we abide in the vine, life from God flows through us. Jesus promised us life and life abundantly. We can only have life if we are connected to the root. In that root is the fullness of the Spirit of God, which includes all the gifts, and fruit of the Holy Spirit. Joy is part of that fruit but in reality it is so much more.

It is a struggle to stay connected everyday. Life is so daily. There are things that seem to be waiting to rob us of our joy. At first staying connected to the Lord can be a real struggle. As we leave a lifestyle that was more about us and less about God it will be a battle to create strength in the new relationship. As we grow, there still will be distractions and things will want to pull us away but it is more natural to stay connected than to break relationship. The Wallenda family are tightrope walkers, I asked Tino Wallenda why he was not afraid to walk the tightrope across Niagara Falls and other daredevil stunts. He said, “I have been walking the tightrope so long it is more natural for me to be on the rope than it is to fall.” Our walk with the Lord should be the same; it should be more natural to walk with Christ, to be connected to Him than to be separated from Him. Joy comes from connection.

Tomorrow John 16