"The Joy That Remains"

"The Joy That Remains"

   

    God blesses us immeasurably in this present lifetime, giving us "richly all things to enjoy" and weaving His loving generosity into the entire fabric of our earthly sojourn (I John 2:17).  

    The truth nevertheless remains that our Heavenly Father loves us enough to not allow overmuch attachment to the world as it presently exists.  "The world passeth away" (I John 2:17).  Be it things, places, careers, hobbies, recreations, or even people, if we live long enough, we either experience the passing of the blessings or our capacity for their enjoyment.  This is hard truth, and nothing to blithely consider.  God made us with deep inner longing for permanency of relationship with Himself and others, along with the experience of lasting, eternal realities.  Thus, it hurts both to lose and to contemplate loss.  Our Heavenly Father understands according to His boundless compassion.  He comforts us in times when some blessing of this present world must slip from our grasp.  Moreover, He doubtless experiences with us the pains of our losses as the faithful One "touched with the feeling of our infirmities" (Hebrews 4:15).  However, He necessarily administers and allows the passing of all things but Himself in order to reveal to us  that Christ alone supplies the fulfillment of our hearts.  "He is thy life" (Deuteronomy 30:20).

    Our Lord would have us to enjoy the richness of His blessings.  We do so, however, in the recognition that He constitutes the true Joy of all our joys.  Thus, His joy still remains, even when the vessel through which it graces us must depart.  Our native tendency to "worship the creature more than the Creator" must give way to the realization of God alone as the Life of our lives (Romans 1:25).  We could lose everything, but if He remains, we will have lost nothing in the most literal truth and meaning.  Hard truth indeed, but necessary to embrace if we are to know the Joy that remains when earthly gifts must pass away.  A blessed Day comes when we ourselves shall depart from this passing realm into the eternal glory where all things abide forevermore.  There will be no losses, no separations, no passing of anything or anybody in the Heaven to which believers proceed by the grace of the Prince of life.  There we will enjoy His gifts in full and perfect knowledge that He is the Blessing of the blessings.  

God comes with His gifts

in full and boundless measure.

He gives to us Himself,

He is our heart's true Treasure.

Having Him, we have all,

Christ only fills our spirit.

The Word of God bears witness

to all whose hearts will hear it…

"I am thy life, thy joy, thy peace,

o look to Me alone.

For I will be all that you need,

both now and evermore."

God comes with His gifts… He is our heart's true Treasure.

"But my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus."

(Philippians 4:19)

"We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal" (II Corinthians 4:18)

Weekly Memory Verse

  "We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal" (II Corinthians 4:18)