ARE YOUR CONVERSATIONS JOYFUL?
Matthew 12:34: “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.”
Are your conversations joyful? If joy fills our hearts, we will speak joyfully. If the source of the stream is abundant, the overflow will also be abundant. It’s hard to keep the lid tight on a boiling pot. Something has to give way for the source of pressure is amazingly powerful. Likewise, a Holy Spirit filled-with-joy Christian will explode if he cannot give vent to the joy that wells up within him.
People are attracted to this phenomena and will ask the reason for the joy. This opens up great opportunities to witness for Christ. As believers, we must take time to immerse our hearts in the presence of Christ on a daily basis. How can we possibly give out what we haven’t got in our hearts?
Jesus said that when we abide in Him and His words abide in us that we can ask what we will and it will be done for us (John 15:7). Jesus makes it very clear that His purpose for telling us these things is that His own personal joy will remain in us and that our joy will be full (John 15:11 and 16:24).
This means there will be no more dragging the bottom. No more trying to get the crumbs or the left over residues of joy. This means we will have an overflowing testimony.
This joy is not fleeting, but lasting. Isaiah 51:11 says that “everlasting joy shall be upon their heads.”
The joy the world gives comes from parties spiced with alcohol and living a life filled with worldly pleasures. Many Christians who do not know what it means to have the “joy of the Lord” are also tempted to cram their lives with worldly pleasures. The reason for this is that man was created with a great need for joy. The “joy of the Lord” fills the abiding Christian no matter what they are going through--sunshine or rain.
Persecution and even the treat of death cannot quench the joy of the Lord unless we allow it to. Worldly pleasures with their counterfeit joy are very circumstantial and are not all at all lasting.
Be encouraged.
Colin Campbell
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