Amazing Grace

Everlasting Joy and Hope

“I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.” – John 15:11

Joy walking forward includes:

• Obedience to the commands of Christ Jesus. Here is an easy link from the Jesus Film for you to enjoy on the commands of Jesus.
• We need to abide in Christ. It is the opposite of trying to solve life on our own terms, of “self-reliance”. It is counter-cultural in an age of learning to fix everything on our own. Yet the power of God is miraculous. His peace is greater than this world. The joy of the Lord is greater than any trial. This means dependence on Him (Abiding) as He lived in complete dependence on His Father in Heaven. More from Christianity.com on Abiding.
• The source of joy is remaining in His love as a source of fulfillment. Jesus is our “first cause”. We will have no other Gods before Him. This is a time to review idols in our lives. What do we run to for substitute joys?
• And being flooded with the love of Christ, we are to love one another and share the love of Jesus outwardly with grace. If you are poured into and your cup is full, it is not possible to receive more unless you pour out what has been received. The outpouring of love may take courage, it may include spiritual boldness (this according to the Lord’s guidance), yet, we are to move forward in and with love.
• He gave them the promise of the Holy Spirit (to reside within their hearts) to comfort, teach, and guide. ( Holy Spirit)

Quotes on Joy and Hope in Christ

–a summary written on the Martin Lloyd-Jones site: ” Our joy comes, not from philosophy, but from Christ. The fight for joy is, therefore, a fight to exalt Christ. Christ is supreme, and true religion points to Him. As Christ remains the center, heresy is eradicated, and joy is restored.”

“I was delivered from the burden that had so heavily suppressed me. The spirit of mourning was taken from me, and I knew what it was to truly rejoice in God my Savior.” –George Whitefield

“Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls.” – Mother Teresa

You see, the joy of the Christian is a holy joy, the happiness of the Christian is a serious happiness…. it is a solemn joy, it is a holy joy, it is a serious happiness; so that, though he is grave and sober-minded and serious, he is never cold and prohibitive.” ― David Martyn Lloyd-Jones

“God is so committed to your ultimate joy that he was willing to plunge into the greatest depths of suffering himself for you.” – Tim Keller

“Only when our greatest love is God, a love that we cannot lose even in death, can we face all things with peace. Grief was not to be eliminated but seasoned and buoyed up with love and hope.” – John Piper

“The spiritual life is a life beyond moods. It is a life in which we choose joy and do not allow ourselves to become victims of passing feelings of happiness or depression.” —Henri Nouwen

“Joy is the serious business of Heaven.” –C.S. Lewis

“The mere fact itself that God’s will is irresistible and irreversible fills me with fear, but once I realize that God wills only that which is good, my heart is made to rejoice.” –A.W. Pink

“Those who know where the treasure lies joyfully abandon everything else to secure it.” –D.A. Carson

“Hope is called the anchor of the soul (Hebrews 6:19) because it gives stability to the Christian life. But hope is not simply a ‘wish’ (I wish that such-and-such would take place); rather, it is that which latches on to the certainty of the promises of the future that God has made.” – RC Sproul

“Love has no meaning if it isn’t shared. We have been created for greater things – to love and to be loved… To love a person without any conditions, without any expectations. Small things, done in great love, bring joy and peace. To love, it is necessary to give. To give, it is necessary to be free from selfishness. — Mother Teresa

“A soul may be in as thriving a state when thirsting, seeking and mourning after the Lord as when actually rejoicing in Him; as much in earnest when fighting in the valley as when singing upon the mount.” –John Newton

“There is a joy which is not given to the ungodly, but to those who love Thee for Thine own sake, whose joy Thou Thyself art. And this is the happy life, to rejoice to Thee, of Thee, for Thee; this it is, and there is no other.” –Augustine

“All joy emphasizes our pilgrim status; always reminds, beckons, awakens desire. Our best havings are wantings.” –C.S. Lewis

“If the life of Christ is flowing through us, the water from the Rock turning the wheel, as it flows into the heart, it will fill us with joy; and if so, we cannot contain it, it must flow out.” G.V. Wigram

“The world looks for happiness through self-assertion. The Christian knows that joy is found in self-abandonment. ‘If a man will let himself be lost for My sake,’ Jesus said, ‘he will find his true self.’ –Elizabeth Elliot

” When the heart is full of joy, it always allows its joy to escape. It is like the fountain in the marketplace; whenever it is full it runs away in streams, and so soon as it ceases to overflow, you may be quite sure that it has ceased to be full. The only full heart is the overflowing heart.” –-Charles Spurgeon

“Oh, what great happiness and bliss, what exaltation it is to address oneself to the Eternal Father. Always, without fail, value this joy which has been accorded to you by God’s infinite grace.” –-John of Kronstadt

“While other worldviews lead us to sit in the midst of life’s joys, foreseeing the coming sorrows, Christianity empowers its people to sit in the midst of this world’s sorrows, tasting the coming joy.” – Tim Keller

“Joy is hidden in sorrow and sorrow in joy. If we try to avoid sorrow at all costs, we may never taste joy, and if we are suspicious of ecstasy, agony can never reach us either. Joy and sorrow are the parents of our spiritual growth.” –Henri Nouwen