May Your Joy Overflow

The answer to the question—is the glass half full or half empty—depends on whether you are filling or emptying the glass. Just looking at a glass sitting on the counter and deciding which it is, is merely speculation. If you are filling the glass, the halfway point means the glass is half full. If you are emptying the glass, the halfway point means the glass is half empty.

Being half full or half empty is merely a measuring spot to tell me where I am in the process of filling or emptying the glass.

Jesus was full of joy. “So this joy of mine has been made full.” (John 3:29) He wanted His followers to have the same joy. “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.” (John 15:11) He told the Father, “I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves.” (John 17:13)

As with all He gives, His gifts amount to more than meets the need. Paul wrote, “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us.” (Ephesians 1:7) Lavishing means He pours abundantly.

He said, “I have come that they might have life and have it in abundance.” (John 10:10) Not an adequate life, not enough life, not sufficient life, but abundant life.

His intentions are to make sure at any moment we have more than enough joy to compensate for what we’re going through.

Since the fullness of joy is already packaged within the gift of His grace, along with redemption and forgiveness, we possess the treasure at all times. We don’t have to ask for joy. We simply need to let it loose.

In the movie Seabiscuit, the racehorse had been poorly trained. He had been misused and abused by those who didn’t realize his potential. In one scene, the trainer tells the jockey to take him out into the countryside and just let him run. Reason: Seabiscuit had forgotten the joy of doing what he was designed to do.

For us, joy comes when we quit trying to be something we’re not and simply be the child God designed us to be. The starting point is forgetting much that we’ve been told and returning to the basics of loving God with all we are. Getting back to undistracted devotion releases the joy we already contain.

Question: How full is your joy glass today? Comments?