GOD’S WORD FOR JUNE 26

OUR PERSONAL PROMISES:

JESUS, YOU…….. HAVE GIVEN ME HOPE  ….PS 119:49

JESUS, YOU………..LIGHT MY LAMP  AND ENLIGHTEN MY DARKNESS….PS 18:28

JESUS, YOU…………RESCUE ME FROM ALL MY FEARS….PS 34:4

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THE WORD FOR TODAY

2 Corinthians 6:10

“as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.”

Today we are finishing the chapter “That Your Joy May be Full”  in the classic book, Abide in Christ by Andrew Murray

Then the Savior said, in His high-priestly prayer to the Father in John 17:13:

“….these things I speak ….that they might have My joy fulfilled in themselves.”

It is the sight of the Great High Priest entering the Father’s presence for us, ever living to pray and carry on His blessed work in the power of an endless life, that removes every possible cause of fear or doubt and gives us the assurance and experience of a perfect salvation.  Let the believer who seeks, according to the teaching of John 15, to possess the full joy of abiding in Christ and, according to John 16, the full joy of prevailing prayer, press forward to john 17.

Let  him there listen to those wondrous words of intercession spoken, that his joy might be full.  As he listens to those words, let him learn of the love that even now pleads for him in heaven without ceasing and of the glorious objects for which it is pleading and which are hourly being realized, and Christ’s joy will be fulfilled in him.

Christ’s own joy, abiding joy, fullness of joy – such is the portion of the believer who abides in Christ.  Why, oh, why is it that this joy has so little power to attract?  The reason simply is this: men, even God’s children, do not believe in it.  Instead of the abiding in Christ being looked upon as the happiest life that ever can be led, it is regarded as a life of self-denial and of sadness.  They forget that self-denial and sadness are a result of NOT abiding and that, to those who once yield themselves unreservedly to abide in Christ as a bright and blessed life, their faith comes true; the joy of the Lord is theirs.  The difficulties all arise from the lack of the full surrender to a full abiding.

Child of God who seeks to abide in Christ, remember what the Lord said.  At the close of the parable of the Vine, He added these precious words:

“These things have I spoken to you that My joy might (abide) in you, and that your joy might be full.” Claim the joy as part of the branch life – not the first or chief part, but as the blessed proof of the sufficiency of Christ to satisfy every need of the soul.  Be happy.   Cultivate gladness.  If there are times when it comes of itself, and the heart feels the unutterable joy of the Savior’s presence, praise God for it, and seek to maintain it. 

If at other times feelings are dull and the experience of the joy not such as you could wish it, still praise God for the life of unutterable blessedness to which you have been redeemed.  In this, too, the Word holds good from Matthew 9:29:

“According to your faith be it unto you.”

As you claim all the other gifts in Jesus, ever claim this one too – not for your own sake, but for  His and the Father’s glory:

John 17:13 ~ ~ “But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves.”

These are Jesus’ own words.  It is impossible to take Him, wholly and heartily, and not to get His joy too.

Therefore, “Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, Rejoice. (Philippians 4:4).

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