June 3, 2011

 "But the fruit of the Spirit is...joy"

-Galatians 5:22

This morning as I drove to work I asked the Lord to fill me with his Spirit. After thinking about Hosea 12:6 from yesturday, "observe kindness and justice", I was encouraged to be an employee who overflows with kindness.
Now, to put this all in context, I started work at 7:00am (by no means am I an early riser...) and was feeling quite sick- not a very joyful start. But as I talked with God and started to consciously look for how he might show up today, He began to give me an overwhelming sense of joy (which, cooincidently, seems to have spread like wildfire).
Joy, according to Galatians 5, is a fruit of the Spirit- a thing that I cannot produce or force in myself, but something that simply happens as the Spirit of God gets control of my heart.
Through the "dark season" of the past 9 months, joy has been the most notable lacking feature. I have often considered myself "robbed of my joy"...  But the reality is this: No one can steal such a thing. I only loose my joy when I cease to walk by His Spirit.
But what a good gift it is to know joy today! And how contagious! Today I have felt as though the Lord has blessed me with his joy in such a tangible way that it has literally overflowed without me trying at all. As I have silently meditated on His joy, I've watched the people with whom I interact laugh and smile and be blessed. What a neat thing to draw near to God and to see him produce the "fruit" of contagious joy!

What is more, today I read John 15:

⁵ I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. ⁶ If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. ⁷ If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. ⁸ My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. ⁹ Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. ¹⁰ If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. ¹¹ These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full

Joy was God's gift to me today.

Oh Father I am so sorry for the ways that I have greived you and your children: not surrendering, not embracing your joy. Thankyou for the overwhelming joy that comes from dwelling in your presence!