The link below is for “Our Daily Bread”…   

http://odb.org/2012/06/20/a-good-neighbor-3/

 The link below is for the Daily Devotions of Greg Laurie … http://www.harvest.org/devotional/daily-devotions/home.ht

John 15:11… “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.”  (NKJV)

These encouraging words spoken by Jesus, were recorded by the apostle John, right after Jesus told us this, in…John 15:9-10… “As the Father loved Me, I also have 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.”  (NKJV)

The word “abide” from this opening scripture…means to remain filled with or to submit to the love of Christ… When the sinner becomes a Christian, they are filled with the Holy Spirit, and are given all 9 fruit of the Spirit… The apostle Paul lists these “Christ like” attributes given to the new Christian, in…Galatians 5:22-23… But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.  (NKJV)

Love is at the very core of what makes a Christian a Christian… Their heart is filled with the “love” of Christ; and this love is what allows the Christian’s life to be changed, as Christ takes up residence with the Holy Spirit… The apostle Paul writes a whole chapter in the Book of 1 Corinthians…where God’s love in us is thoroughly explained and declared as a Christian’s greatest gift from God…  Here is the link for this writing… http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1cor%2013&version=NKJV

Jesus is telling us that if we could “abide” in His love, this “joy” God gives us would remain in us…and our “joy” would be full… Along with the love of Christ dwelling with-in us…peace and joy are in my opinion, two of the most important benefits of being filled with the Holy Spirit…Romans 14:17… for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.  (NKJV)

I just wrote about this peace God gives the Spirit filled Christian, which goes beyond mortal understanding, two days ago… But this “joy” God wants all of His children to possess, is just as important… King David, a man after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22), knew the absolute importance of joy in his own life… After David’s horrendous sins of adultery with Bathsheba, and the killing of her husband Uriah (2 Samuel 11)…David prayed this to God, in…

Psalm 51:10-12… Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. ¹¹ Do not cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. ¹² Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, And uphold me by Your generous Spirit.  (NKJV)

David wrote 1/2 of the Book of Psalms…including Psalm 23… “The Lord is my Shepherd”… David knew God as well as anybody else in the Bible; and God knew him…  This prayer for repentance, after his unbelievable sins, gives us first hand knowledge of how valuable joy was to David, before he lost it by sinning…

God wants to bless all of His children… But just like David who had lost his joy because of his sins…we as Christian’s will also see our peace and joy dwindle and/or disappear, when we harbor un-confessed sins in our lives…  I am here to testify of this very thing in my own life…  My peace and joy didn’t return in my own life, until I humbly submitted to again being totally controlled by the Holy Spirit…  Any time we are less than Spirit filled…there has to be un-confessed sins that we must seek forgiveness for, as we turn and repent of them like both David and myself did (1 John 1:9)…

Once we are again abiding in God’s love…He will be free to bless us; and God will again allow the joy and the peace that only He can provide, to dwell richly in us (Colossians 3:16-18)…

Heavenly Father, I pray that all of us can learn from Your Word… Help all of us Lord, especially Your children …to understand that You must be in total charge of our lives, or the blessings, peace, and joy You would love to provide to all of Your children, may be withheld… Lord, I pray that you would remove whatever stumbling block of sin we have as Your children from us…so that we could again be deemed righteous in your sight…  I pray for this God given comfort and this absolute peace and joy for all of our lives…in Jesus’ most precious name and for His sake…Amen…

written by bruce