“These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.” John 15:11 NKJV
According to the Oxford dictionary, joy is a feeling of great pleasure and happiness. But the joy that Christ speaks about in this chapter is much more than that. This joy includes a depth of assurance and confidence that will ignite a cheerful heart, and this cheerful heart leads to a cheerful behaviour.
It would not be long now and Christ would be leaving his disciples. Knowing that they might be tempted to then also depart from Him, he tells them the importance of abiding in Him by faith. That though they might be tempted to grow strange to one another, Christ encourages them to love one another. That though they would experience hardships and rejection, Christ prepares them to bear this hatred from the world.
The joy that Christ speaks about is not an experience that comes from favourable circumstances. Instead, it is a gift from God to every believer allowing them to say that it is well with their soul between themselves and the Lord.
Lock Your Wings 
“The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you.”
John 15:19 NLT
We spend too much time and energy into worldly things that have no eternal value. We won’t always be aligned with the popular options. We won’t always agree. We walk a different path but it leads us to eternity with no regrets.
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