Father's Love: For us to live in Joy

I was struck by the Holy Spirit when I was listening to a teaching on "Hope and Joy", realizing the more we have revelation of the goodness of our Father and His love for us then hope and joy become normal.  There is so much for reason for the opposite in our world, hopeless and despair as we see reports of 4,000 dying in a massive earthquake and the riots on the streets of Baltimore.  Yet we need to decide which reality will tune our lives and hearts to, the frequency of heaven or the one of the earth.

I grew up in a both hope and joy impaired atmosphere and I internalized much of this as the way life is and will be.  Yet to agree with the conclusions I came to as a child is to assume my present and future will be the same.  One of the fruits of the Holy Spirit's work in our lives is joy.  I was particularly impacted when it was said, "your joy level determines your spiritual load bearing capacity".  I said the Lord that day that I want more joy in life so that my load bearing capacity can be greater to bring life to those around me.

There is no way that I can expect to produce joy from an orphan heart, it is only as I agree with who I am as a beloved son that I can experience the Father's joy.  In the story of the prodigal son, the Father celebrates because His son was lost and dead, now has returned.  Our Father celebrates restored relationship and intimacy, not performance, achievement, or perfection.

How can we not have joy when we become aware of and live in the truth. We have been forgiven for all our sins, Father has put us in right relationship with Himself through Christ, we have been made Holy, we are accepted into the family of God, we have eternal life, we have a new identity as sons and daughters, we have been seated "in Christ" in heavenly places, and we have been given the Kingdom of God (Colossians 2:13-14, Romans 5:17, Ephesians 1:4, Ephesians 1:5-6, Ephesians 2:6, and Luke 12:32).

I am convicted that I have a lot of "orphan thinking" that are not mindsets of hope and joy but ones of hopelessness, heaviness, and despair.  Praise you Father that the Holy Spirit is on board to tear down those strongholds and build strongholds of hope and joy in my life.

Living In Father's Delight,
Bret