What gives you joy in life? Is it playing a game? Is it getting a promotion? Let me ask you something else. What kind of joy lasts a long time for you? Is it the birth of your child? Is it overcoming a drug or alcohol addiction?
I think we see joy as an emotion: something caught in a moment. It can be here now then gone tomorrow. But the thing about joy is that it's not really fleeting. Not something that floats on the wind then is whisked away. Joy is locked into something stronger. Something that lasts forever. Joy is locked into truth. Into real love.
Jesus was spending a moment with his disciples (not his last). And he was talking about what was about to happen with his death and the things that would take place after his departure. He looked around at his friends, those who stuck close to him, and said:
"These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends."
Then Jesus laid his life down for you. All your sins...he took upon himself while on the cross that you would know life. That you would know true love.
That you would know joy.
That joy...that love...that life is rooted in God. The One who lives forever. If you want to know that joy, it doesn't take looking into yourself to find it. Or experiencing a fun event at the park. It takes looking up to the one who gave his life for you and trusting in Jesus. For then, the joy that he has will be yours.
And that will never be taken away.
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