This is a message for my brothers and sisters in Christ.  Many of us have heard that there is a hole in our hearts that only God can fill.  CS Lewis said something similar when he said “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”  In my own life, and I suspect I am not alone, it is a struggle to continually bring to rememberance my inheritance with Christ as an adopted son.  Likewise, my joy or lack thereof can be directly tied to my setting my mind on the fullness of joy that awaits me in Heaven, and has been guaranteed by the Holy Spirit dwelling inside me.

Colossians 2:6-10 – “as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.  See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.  For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.”

My exhortation and encouragement, during this season where we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, is to meditate not only on His birth and life, but on what our hope in Jesus is in eternity.  Here’s a challenge for us all – pursue joy in the Lord for 10 minutes intentionally.  Because of Jesus, we’re going to die once, and then never again.  Because of Jesus, we know where we will be 100 years from now, 1,000 years from now, 1,000,000 years from now and into eternity.  We will be with Jesus, in whose presence there is a fullness of joy (Psalm 16:11).  Because of Jesus, there is an end to sin, both in ourselves and in the world.  Because of Jesus, our eternity will be held together by the perfect love and perfect joy that has existed between God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit forever.  The gospel of Jesus is the lens through which we can rejoice in any circumstances now, and have hearts of thanksgiving in a broken world.  Because of Jesus, our sin is no more, and God the Father looks on us with perfect love as we have been clothed in the righteousness of Jesus.

My prayer for myself is freedom in joy – that the knowledge of the depth of God’s love towards us in Jesus, would free us from the trappings of sin, free us from the anxieties of life, and free our hearts to overflow in thanksgiving, joy, in love to the world around us.  Jesus is our Treasure – greater than all that the world could ever offer, and our Hope in Him is sound.

Romans 5:1-5 – “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.  Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

Love you all.  Know that we will rejoice together in eternity with a joy beyond expression.