I woke a couple times last night with some pain in my shoulder and my mind turned on and went on a path of thinking about joy. The Lord guided my thoughts to the time when I experienced intense overwhelming joy so much so that I had to stop thinking about it and shove it back inside of me because is was unbelievable the amount of emotion that was produced. I was driving in my car at the time which is always a great place to think and pray but can get you to drive past where you needed to go. LOL. I was pregnant with my daughter and started thinking about the amazing gift I had received from God in not only coming to know him in my heart, being released from the fears of exposing my past sins to others but the gift of my hearts desire to have a second child. My heart just bubbled over with intense joy and I started pouring out tears. My chest was filled to capacity and it was literally overwhelming the emotion that it brought. That emotion was pure joy. Perhaps it was because of my pregnant hormonally driven state that I experienced it in such an overwhelming way. In any case, it reminds me that joy can be found in knowing and trusting Jesus Christ. I remember when I first came to believe in Christ and understood that I was forgiven in my heart. I grew up believing in my head but was missing the heart piece. When I found that, I was “hot” for Jesus. I wanted to learn all I could. That was motivated by the joy of knowing the gift I had finally connected with in my heart of being forgiven. The initial joy re-visits me often in worship when we are confessing or just singing our praises. I think of the awesome gift of Jesus and am overwhelmed with joy that I with all my sins am a recipient of such an amazing gift.
Phillipians 3:8 Even more, I consider everything to be nothing compared to knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. To know him is the best thing of all. (New International Reader’s Version)
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