“For Your Joy”

Believe it or not, Amy and I both have really wanted to blog some more, but since we have three children now, who has time, right!?! It is hard to believe the last blog was in Oct of last year, man does time fly!

There is so much to tell and so much to share, but to start back with the blog today, I simply want to say one thing that I cannot possibly over-emphasize.

“These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” John 15:11.

I cannot over emphasize the “joy of the Lord” we have seen and experienced since we began this journey. Has it had its share of hard times? Yes! Have there been times of discouragement and confusion? Yes! But here is a real question, what in this life can we pursue that DOES NOT have those times? Nothing! But, are there things we can pursue in this world that have those times but in the end result in NO JOY? Absolutely!

God has shown us a depth and breadth of His love, joy, grace, peace and mercy through having Kailyn as our daughter that we never could have “tasted and seen” otherwise.

All of that to say, whatever Jesus is leading us to do, it is to INCREASE OUR JOY and it is a REAL joy that ONLY HE can give. Nothing else in this world can compare to the joy He and He alone gives. In all He leads us to do, He wants us to experience greater and greater joy in Him. When we begin to see that following Jesus is no longer about giving up everything we really want in order to sacrificially follow Him, but seeing that He is offering us, if we CHOOSE to follow Him, a real and authentic sense of joy and satisfaction and comfort that NOTHING else in this world can offer, then our motives to follow Him turn from necessary (and even joyless) sacrificial obedience and “giving up the things I want” to motives of “throwing off everything that hinders and the sin that easily entangles” (Heb. 12:2) in a passionate pursuit of real joy that we have “tasted and seen” as being very good and we want more!

So be encouraged! Whatever He is calling us to do! IT IS FOR OUR JOY! REAL JOY! LASTING JOY! UNEXPLAINABLE JOY!

My prayer, “Lord, increase my desire for real joy that can only be found in you! Please show me the triviality of things I pursue and am passionate about.”

Andrew