Abundant Joy

Sometimes in life you need to hear the words of wisdom that only others can provide to you. In this season of busyness it’s often easy to neglect spending time pouring into the Word. It’s often easy to put aside your prayer time in lieu of much needed sleep. However, this morning as I tried to embrace my new routine of early mornings, I was reminded that even in this times of chaos, He is right beside me, speaking to me, gentle nudging me with the people he has placed in my life and with the beauty of nature that surrounds me. With the sermons I listen to, the friends I share coffee with, and the family I walk through life with daily. Despite “not having the time” to give Him everything, He meets me where I am, and draws me closer to him, imperfections and all.

Paul was speaking here of the things that might seem likely to separate a saint from the love of God. But the remarkable thing is that nothing can come between the love of God and a saint. The things Paul mentioned in this passage can and do disrupt the close fellowship of our soul with God and separate our natural life from Him. But none of them is able to come between the love of God and the soul of a saint on the spiritual level. The underlying foundation of the Christian faith is the undeserved, limitless miracle of the love of God that was exhibited on the Cross of Calvary; a love that is not earned and can never be. Paul said this is the reason that “in all these things we are more than conquerors.” We are super-victors with a joy that comes from experiencing the very things which look as if they are going to overwhelm us.


Huge waves that would frighten an ordinary swimmer produce a tremendous thrill for the surfer who has ridden them. Let’s apply that to our own circumstances. The things we try to avoid and fight against— tribulation, suffering, and persecution— are the very things that produce abundant joy in us. “We are more than conquerors through Him” “in all these things”; not in spite of them, but in the midst of them. A saint doesn’t know the joy of the Lord in spite of tribulation, but because of it. Paul said, “I am exceedingly joyful in all our tribulation” (2 Corinthians 7:4).

The undiminished radiance, which is the result of abundant joy, is not built on anything passing, but on the love of God that nothing can change. And the experiences of life, whether they are everyday events or terrifying ones, are powerless to “separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39).


[The previous was an except from the daily devotional book My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers]


I have never ceased to be amazed at His timing as He continually speaks much needed truth into my life. How truly blessed am I indeed. I am yearning to be a conqueror more with each day & craving His abundant joy.