Filled with Jesus’ Joy?

      “I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love.
       When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love,
       just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.
       I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy.
      Yes, your joy will overflow!”    John 15:9-11

Perhaps like you, I ask God for a verse and a word to lean into in the coming year.  The word I kept hearing was “joy”.  Recently, it was confirmed in the words of Jesus above in John 15:9-11.  Can it be true that God really wants us to be filled to overflowing with his joy?

Have you, like me, been sensing a command to stop striving for God’s love but to trust him and just rest in him, expecting him to be all he says he is and to do all he has promised to do?  In the verses above Jesus gives all who would believe in him the motivation for trusting him and believing what he says.  Love.  The Father loves Jesus, and Jesus tells us he loves us, in the same way the Father has loved him, unconditionally, completely and eternally.  God Almighty, the holy Creator God, the three in One, the One in three, has chosen us and has committed to love us, to love YOU forever. 

Are you letting yourself hear this?  What would prevent you from believing this truth? Why not, right now, start the year by simply believing you are worthy to be loved in God’s eyes.  The Father has proven you are worthy by sending Jesus to die in your place.  Believing this enables us to willingly obey Jesus, our Lord, in every way.

Believe the truth. This is the commandment that Jesus wants us to obey as we start the year.  Jesus died to give us security in our value and new identity in Christ.  When we believe we are loved, through and through, we can rest in our relationship with the Father.  When we rest, secure we are loved, no matter what befalls us, we are able to receive Jesus’ overflowing joy.  Our Lord will have accomplished the purpose for which he was sent.  What greater reason for him, and for us, to celebrate every day with JOY?!

Dear friends, be blessed to rest secure in your belovedness.  As you receive more and more of God’s love, may you yearn to love him, who is supremely worthy, with all your hearts, minds and strength and increasingly overflow with contagious joy in the coming year.  Amen.

Mary Sumner ~ January 10 , 2025