That My Joy might Remain in You

Recently I became aware of something. When I would study in the morning about the love of God, picking up promises from His word, searching out things in the Spirit of Prophecy or in our material from Maranatha Media, I would feel a joy inside of me which followed me throughout the day. But when I would engage too much in things like the news or threatening information like about the corona-crisis, this joy would begin to cease and eventually disappear.

Then one morning I came upon this word from Christ:

These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. John 15:11

Wow, this struck me! It is not my joy that I feel, but His joy! His joy in me! His Spirit in me rejoices  when I meditate on heavenly things. And this joy ceases when I engage in things which do not uplift me but draw me into the filth of this sinful world. These things feed something inside me that is attracted to evil.

Isaiah says about the righteous:

He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil; Isa 33:15

If I submit myself to the fleshly drawing to study evil in others, individuals or nations, I might grieve the Holy Spirit.

And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Eph 4:30

The word for “grieve” here is G3076:

λυπέω lypéō, loo-peh'-o; from G3077; to distress; reflexively or passively, to be sad:—cause grief, grieve, be in heaviness, (be) sorrow(-ful), be (make) sorry.

Isn’t the Holy Spirit of God whereby we are sealed actually Christ in us, the hope of glory? By our wrong decisions, by our wrong actions, by our wrong words, we can cause Christ to be sad in us, to be in heaviness in us, to be distressed in us. In doing this we add to His and the Father’s ongoing pain. And we hurt ourselves, we lose our joy, our peace and our rest.

When we decide to abide in Him, always submitting to His “still, small voice” (Lord, please open mine ear for this small voice. Isaiah 50:5) we can ease His pain and experience full joy. As we are relational beings it is said: “A joy that's shared is a joy made double”. When Christ abides in us and His joy remains in us, we have a companion with us and we always can experience full and abundant joy in our oneness with Him.

These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. John 15:11

May we all grow in this experience, beloved!