I'm Offering A JOY Guarantee
Please read this like a Guitar Center commercial:
Do you want a Joy that lives above your circumstances?
Do you want to know the secret to a content heart?
Do you want freedom from the things that exhaust your soul?
We guarantee the best price anywhere, anywhere, anywhere!
Ok, now stop reading with that voice:) What if there was something offered that could meet all of these desires? What would you pay for that? Think about it. Joy outside of circumstance (stop and reflect); a content and satisfied heart; freedom from the things that exhaust your soul. All of these are possible. Remember, these are not things that can be made or strived for. Trust me I know. My lettermans jacket as a “Varsity American Christian” should have cured these things, but only left me exhausted.
We “know” that the answer to all of these is Jesus. Right? And often we leave it there, cheering and giving hi-fives. Jesus is indeed the answer to these yearnings and offers Himself and citizenship into His Kingdom for free...kinda free. Free in that citizenship is not purchasable or earnable, but there is a cost or a way of life that ensures all of these benefits.
God (Trinity) showed us the cost with the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus. So the way that I read it, our cost is the same; pretty simple and yet the hardest thing for us to do.
Cost: Surrender
Guarantee: JOY to the full; a content heart; a soul no longer exhausted but empowered
Again these things cannot be earned, but are byproducts of a life surrendered, moment by moment to the Love, Kindness, Goodness, Wisdom, Grace, Power, and Will of God!
If I may, I’ll mess with this cheezy bumper sticker (sorry if that offends you:) but: No Jesus, No Joy ---- Know Jesus, Know Joy
Next week we are going to define Joy and deal with the difference between joy and happy!
For the rest of this week, let’s look for the areas that we are not surrendered. Share this with a friend and let’s begin to practice surrender!