Everlasting Joy

Do you believe it is possible to have someone deliberately insult you, belittle you or intentionally hurt you and not be affected by it? Many people think that is a fairy tale that doesn’t exist until we get to heaven. I don’t believe that. In fact, I’ve lived my life in this place for many years. I promise you that this revelation of the gospel will change your life!
 
The reality is that if your joy is dependent upon the weather, a football game, politics, the economy, your job, what someone said/did to you or by anything else in this world, your joy is not found in the Lord. It is found in the world. If you need a significant other to feel loved, a family to feel accepted and a job to feel secure, you are setting yourself up for failure. It isn’t bad to have a spouse, family or job. In fact, these are great blessings! However, it is dangerous if your joy is dependent upon these things because all of them will eventually fail you. Your spouse will hurt you. Your family will disappoint you. Your job will one day come to an end. 
 
How do you not base your joy, hope and faith in the world? You simply die to yourself. I love the way one of my favorite evangelists puts it; “I’m free from me; which means I am free from you.” Powerful! The reason I am ‘free from me’ is because I have died to my selfish desires. I am ‘free from you’ (meaning I am not offended or hurt by anything you do) because there is nothing left to offend! I am not insecure because my security comes from God (Galatians 2:20, Luke 9:23). I am not in need of love from another person because my desire for love is fulfilled in God. I am fully complete in Him. 
 
Ephesians 3:19 says, “…and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.” The phrase “filled up with all the fullness of God” has a word picture of a house with no empty rooms. All of our rooms are filled with God and everything else in our life is a blessing.
 
 Remember that when people fail you, life hurts you and bad circumstances surround you, the finished work of what Jesus accomplished on the cross is the only thing that can bring you an everlasting joy.