Advent: Joy
Advent (noun):
-The arrival of a notable person, thing or event
-The first season of the Christmas church year, leading up to Christmas and including four preceding Sundays
I once asked a priest at church camp how she believed we could carry the feeling of camp into our regular lives and make it last.
You know the feeling when you’re as I simply put it, “High on the Holy Spirit.” Everyone is kind and the atmosphere is amazing, but as soon as you’re picked up on Saturday morning it’s as if a bubble bursts. No one understands what you just experienced and the outside world is just not—camp.
However, that is what we are called to do as Christians. I believe it could be heaven on Earth if we are diligent workers in spreading the good news and… joy.
Joy (noun):
-A feeling of great pleasure and happiness
Joy has a Latin origin that translates to rejoice.
What the priest shared with me, I am not sure I understood at my young age. She talked to me about how important it is to be rooted in The Lord. If we are rooted, then when things happen in our lives we won’t be shaken. The Holy Spirit lives within each of us after all.
“So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.”
I love this verse. It shows me that our joy of The Lord in not only rooted in Him, but that we can overflow with thankfulness and joy for The Lord.
Imagine the joy of Mary, Joseph, the shepherds and everyone that Christmas morning. I bet they were overflowing in love.
They were sure of Him. So today—and as Christmas approaches—be sure of Him and that He lives in you. Stay rooted. Even when fellow shoppers are disgruntled, your family lets you down or other obstacles are tossed your way this holiday season. Don’t let any of it shake your joy you have for your Lord, your life. After all, Jesus is JOY TO THE WORLD.
My prayer for you and I today:
Jesus, Prince of Peace and Joy to the World,
May our hearts be prepared and make room for the joy You are to bring. Help us, Lord, to stay rooted even when trials are thrown our way. Let us overcome them in love and in peace. I pray this season, and every season, we may be so rooted in You and Your word, that we overflow with love and praise all the days of our lives. I pray that in doing this, Lord, we can lead others to You and show them that with You, we can't be moved or shaken.
Amen.
“I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”