Jesus Our Joy

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A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

Proverbs 17:22 ESV

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What is the answer to your way out of a crushing circumstance? It is joy! How can one have joy when there is crushing pressure all around? For the Christian this is where faith comes in - our faith in Jesus. Faith is an assurance of possibility. Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of unseen reality (Hebrews 11:1). Faith is seeing Jesus walking on the water of your life and rescuing you from every crushing wave and boisterous wind. Faith is taking your gaze off the pressure to only see Jesus.

The believer in Jesus is most blessed because of the living reality of Jesus in our lives. Jesus now dwells within us by the power of the Holy Spirit. He is our life of resurrection from all dead circumstances. When we behold Jesus we are beholding our joyful deliverance. For He has run the race before us with joy enduring the cross and paying with His life for our life. We are now His purchased possession and follow His way of overcoming all difficult moments by fixing our sight on the joy set before us - our Jesus.

When we see Jesus we see His delight for us, we see His love for us. We see our way of escape out of every hard situation. Only by seeing His joy are we in faith. Faith expresses itself through joy. When we see Jesus we see joy! The purest expression of faith is knowing that God is happy with us, knowing that He loves us.

Today receive encouragement for your life by seeing Jesus alone. See what He has done for you, how He laid down His life for you. For the joy of you being His now - He endured the cross. You are His joy as He is your joy!

Step out in joy and triumph over all crushing pressure. For Paul writes "We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed - always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body." (2 Corinthians 4:8-10).