It's been nearly a year since posting, not because I haven't been learning anything but mostly because I have been busy and just plain tired. That's so bad.
We are doing a study by Max Lucado in Dwelling Place titled, "Experiencing the Heart of Jesus". It is an incredible study. If you ever get the chance to do that study, I encourage you to do it and do it with others so you can grow together. This weeks lesson is all about experiencing the joy of Jesus. Sometimes I just assume that it was easy for Jesus to be joyful while here on earth. I mean He is the Son of God, of course He was joyful. But as I stopped and really took a look at all the things that Jesus went through while here on earth and what He went through just to get here joy probably wouldn't have been my first reaction. But joy was always Jesus' reaction. Jesus looked at the big picture not at the circumstances surrounding Him at any one moment in time. Me, on the other hand, I let circumstances get to me quite easily. I look at the here and now Jesus looked at what was waiting for Him. He was going home and He was doing what was needed in order to get us home too. Don't you just love getting home after a long trip? I do. In fact, as I am driving home, usually east on the 10 freeway, I have to be careful and watch my speed. It seems the closer I get to home the faster I want to go to get there. As the miles get shorter, my foot gets heavier! :)
But back to joy. One of the things that wasn't new but hit home with me was the idea that the state of our heart really determines our joy. In the time of Jesus, the Jews would have thought of the heart differently than we do. To them, the heart was "thought of as the seat of character--the origin of desires, affections, perceptions, thoughts, reasoning, imagination, conscience, intentions, purpose, will and faith." There are some verses that mean even more when you put that definition in to play. Like, Proverbs 4:23, "Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the well-spring of life." If out of our heart comes all those things we had better guard it! Then there are a few other verses I have been pondering this evening. Matt. 6:21, "Your heart will be where your treasure is." Wow, where is my treasure? If my treasure is in things and stuff, it is going to be hard to have too much joy in my life. The other verses I have been thinking about are Matt. 12:34-35, "You snakes! You are evil people, so how can you say anything good? The mouth speaks the things that are in the heart. Good people have good things in their heart, and so they say good things. But evil people have evil in their hearts so they say evil things." Those verses are kind of to the point. In other words, our mouth tells on our hearts. If the joy of Jesus is not in our hearts then evil things come out of our mouths. In light of those verses, I am going to spend some time this week really listening to what comes out of my mouth. I don't want my mouth to have to tell on my heart. I want my words to show my heart and the joy that Jesus has given to me. I know my true treasure is in heaven, I need to keep my heart there and not get distracted by the things in this world.
