Category: Thoughts and Meditations

“These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” – John 15:11

Most people want joy. You probably do too. The good news is that Jesus wants that for you! Jesus wants every follower to have complete, full joy in Him. He offers joy that surpasses all human understanding because it’s His divine, holy, eternal joy in the Lord.

However, if you want to experience that lasting, utterly satisfying joy, you need to read carefully the verses that came before this one. The full, glorious joy Jesus offers doesn’t come from having lots of money, having a great job, having a big house, having a fast car, having a beautiful family, winning awards, or being perfectly comfortable and safe. Those things don’t provide lasting joy. Period.

Here’s what provides true joy, according in to Jesus:

• Believing in Him and knowing that you’re truly, perfectly clean and loved by God because of His sacrifice for you on the cross (John 15:3).
• Abiding in Jesus. Keeping your eyes and hearts focused on Him, walking with Him, worshiping Him, praying with Him (John 15:4-7).
• Abiding in the love of Jesus. Thinking often of how much He loves you, what He sacrificed for you, and how He’s always with you (John 15:9).
• Bearing fruit for Him in His power. Doing the work of the Kingdom as your top priority. Making disciples (followers of Jesus) who make disciples [John 15:4-5, 8].
• Being pruned by God for greater fruitfulness. Giving up bad things, neutral things, and even good things that hold you back from great things and maximum impact for God’s Kingdom (John 15:2)
• Obeying Christ’s commands. All of them. The ones you like and the ones you don’t like. The easy ones and the difficult ones (John 15:10).

As you do these things more and more you’ll experience the true and ultimate joy available to us as creatures made in God’s image. You’ll be filled with the joy and presence of Christ and your joy will be made perfect and complete. Stop looking for joy in other places. Stop looking for shortcuts to joy. Look to Jesus and do what He says and you’ll experience joy forever and ever!

“Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.” – John 15:3

Do you believe this? Deep within your heart and soul, do you truly believe this about yourself? Do you believe that you are clean? If you’ve embraced Jesus as your Lord then this is true and you need to let this truth soak into your soul.

Though we can readily agree that we’re saved by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ and admit that we contribute nothing to our salvation, we can still struggle to fully embrace this truth. Many Christians do. Though we can intellectually agree that we’re new creations in Christ when we believe in Him, we can struggle to really understand and accept how God sees us. We can waste our lives beating ourselves up about our past, held back by our self-image as filthy, ashamed, and unworthy. Though we can say and sing of how the blood of Jesus washes us clean of sin, we often still think of ourselves as dirty because we vividly remember our past mistakes, sins, guilt, and shame.

If you’ve embraced Christ, then your past is truly washed clean. You really are a new creation in Him. You really are clean in God’s eyes. You won’t make yourself more clean or more worthy by continuing to think or speak badly of yourself because of that past that Jesus died to wipe clean. Embrace this truth. Speak this truth to yourself every time you start to think harshly about yourself. Meditate on all that Jesus did for you on the cross to make you fully, completely, absolutely clean.

As you come to more fully believe and understand that you really are clean, this truth will fill your soul with joy and delight in God’s amazing grace that makes you clean. Accepting the cleanness you already have in Christ will set you free from the self-administered prison of the past that you may have locked yourself in. Accepting the cleanness you already have in Christ empowers you to live a life of extraordinary fruitfulness in Christ Who made you clean. So, honestly, do you KNOW that you’re clean because of Christ?

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” – John 14:27

Jesus doesn’t operate the same way everyone and everything else does in this world. He doesn’t operate the way you might expect Him to. He doesn’t give in the selfish, transactional, manipulative way the world usually gives. He gives His followers peace and it’s far different from what and how the world gives. The world imagines peace as the absence of conflict, difficulty, or stress and Christians often accept that definition to their detriment. Such peace is elusive and illusory because we live in a fallen world that is ravaged by human sin. We keep chasing the world’s peace but it doesn’t come or it doesn’t last very long.

Jesus gives His followers peace in their hearts despite the presence of conflict, difficulty, and stress in the world. He knows we live in a fallen world. Just as Jesus overcame the world, He empowers His followers to overcome the chaos, trials, violence, and suffering of the world even when they continue. He gives us the ability to follow Him in perfect peace no matter what’s going on around us or in our lives. He can calm our racing hearts and soothe our weary and anxious minds.

However, we must let Him. We must choose to draw nearer to Jesus – in reading and meditation on Scripture, in public and private worship, and in prayer throughout the day and night. This command (and it is a command) not to let our hearts be troubled or afraid implies we have a role to play. We must choose to accept Christ’s peace. We must choose to turn our eyes, hearts, and minds away from the evil of the world and toward Him. We must learn to pray for and embrace His peace, to walk in His Spirit, and to refuse to let fear rule within us no matter what’s going on around us. We can do this because Jesus is present with us and in us at all times. We can do this because He will give us His peace if we’re willing to accept it.

“Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” – John 14:21

There’s a BIG difference between “liking” Jesus (in the social media sense) and loving Jesus. What’s that difference? Obedience! Jesus isn’t just our best friend and Savior. He’s also our Lord and should rightfully be in charge of all aspects of our lives (for our good!). We demonstrate our love for Jesus by trusting His Lordship. We demonstrate our love for Jesus by obeying what He commanded – everything He commanded (not just the parts we like best).

Why obey Jesus? First and foremost because we love Him. He’s also given us wonderful assurances when we’re finally ready to stop loving ourselves and our desires more than we love Jesus and His commands. As we grow in our love (and obedience) to Jesus we grow in our experience of God’s love, joy, and pleasure. As we grow in our love and obedience to Jesus we grow in His love for us.

This greater experience of Christ’s love doesn’t come because we somehow earn it or deserve it (we never will). Rather, it comes because we’re open to it. By yielding to Christ’s Lordship we more fully open our hearts, minds, and souls up to Christ’s love, letting it work deeply into every aspect of our being.

As we obey Jesus and enjoy greater awareness and experience of His love, Jesus also promises that we’ll enjoy greater awareness of Him. Jesus reveals Himself to us as we orient our lives toward truly following Him. We feel His presence and pleasure. We know He’s always with us. We become more delighted in our constant union with Him. As we love Jesus we obey Jesus. As we obey Jesus, we see Jesus. Are you ready to more fully obey Christ’s commands? Do you know how?

“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.” – John 14:12

This is a verse that Christians seldom remember and often have a hard time believing. Nonetheless, but it’s a promise from Jesus! If you believe in Him, you’re invited and empowered to do greater works that He did! Because Jesus died, rose from the dead, ascended to heaven, and poured out the Holy Spirit on all believers, we’re expected to do the works of Jesus and even greater works. Chew on that for a few minutes…

Jesus healed people, preached the message of God’s Kingdom, cast out demons, and even raised the dead. He touched the sick, loved the poor, welcomed the outcast. He gave hope to the hopeless and critiqued the prideful. He revealed the love and beauty of God and revealed the hypocrisy of those who thought they had God all figured out. Then Jesus said that His followers will be able to do even more by the power of the Holy Spirit!

Despite His assurance in this verse, most of us probably aren’t even trying. Are you? Most of us seriously underestimate what Christ’s Spirit within us is capable of, so we don’t ask and we don’t try. God loves to answer bold prayers asked in His will. He loves to work wonders that bring glory to Him and that introduce people to His Kingdom. It’s His will for us to reach people all around the world for Jesus. It’s His will for us to bring help, hope, blessing, and the message of salvation to the poor and beaten down everywhere. So, are you praying and living in the confident expectation that Jesus wants you to do greater works for Him?