Enjoy Freedom in Christ

"Modern man has been pressed "so hard toward useful work and rational calculation he has all but forgotten the joy of ecstatic celebration" - Harvey Cox (CoD).

Entering the last chapter of CoD I am left to think about celebration, JOY! Reading the above quote resonates all too well for me, thinking to just last night as I lay down anxious thinking that "I'm missing something", "I'm not doing it right". What you're supposed to be accomplishing at midnight on vacation I have no idea, but I wasn't accomplishing it, and it caused me anxiety.

Jesus was all about joy. He lived that way, the Man of Sorrows though He was. Somehow Jesus was able to look to the "joy set before Him", to carry His burden lightly. Foster notes that the announcement of Jesus' entrance into the world was a pronouncement of joy ("Good news of great joy!"), and near the end of His ministry on earth Jesus summarizes His commandment: Love one another that your joy may be full.

Jesus was no joke, and therefore joy, to Jesus, is serious business. We're all bottled up, chained, captured by sin. Joy is one of the most compelling evidences of freedom.

Lord Jesus, I want to live in the freedom that You won for me, the freedom that manifests in joy. In Your presence is fullness of joy, so let me live there, in Your presence where I can be myself, who You're making me to be.

In Jesus Name,

Amen


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