Fixing our eyes upon Jesus

These verses have been challenging and encouraging me this morning...especially with my tendency to let my emotions rule over me. Jesus had emotions, it is evident by His prayers in Gethsemane, but His response is the key. He sought the Father's will (Matthew 26). Through that obedience to the Father, He endured the cross and suffered shame...all for the JOY set before Him. Our Abiding in Christ, Our obedience and submission to His will above our own, these things are what will lead to joy. Not a hope that an emotion might change. Emotions can be all over the place, but my joy remains full in Christ.

Matthew 26:36-46

The Garden of Gethsemane

³⁶ Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to His disciples, "Sit here while I go over there and pray."

³⁷And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and distressed.

³⁸Then He said to them, "My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death; remain here and keep watch with Me."

³⁹And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will."

⁴⁰And He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, "So, you men could not keep watch with Me for one hour?

⁴¹"Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak."

⁴²He went away again a second time and prayed, saying, "My Father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, Your will be done."

⁴³Again He came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy.

⁴⁴And He left them again, and went away and prayed a third time, saying the same thing once more.

⁴⁵Then He came to the disciples and said to them, "Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners.

⁴⁶"Get up, let us be going; behold, the one who betrays Me is at hand!"

Hebrews 12:1-3

Jesus, the Example

¹Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

²fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

³For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

Abide in Me

My last post was about how I have been struggling with feeling down lately.

I have been praying so much about this in just a raw way. I don't know how to fix it, I don't have strength or will power...I know that I need God's strength. Its the kind of prayer that brings me back to my need for Christ and out of my own illusion of self control.

I want to say this because I want you to know where I was when I wrote that blog post. I was in need and I knew it. About the only thing going for me was the fact that I had a mustard seed of faith and a knowledge that my faith in Christ was the only answer...and so I prayed, not really knowing what to pray, but prayed for help.

It's amazing how faithful God is. The NIGHT after I wrote that blog post, I was digging through my room (at that point there were still a lot of random things scattered around my room) and I found a folder that I had labeled "Bible Studies". I got them off of this website called Lily7 forever ago and I decided to flip through them.

The first was one called 7 days of prayer and I thought "Hmmm, this could be good and helpful since I'm struggling right now", so I kind of put it to the side. The next one was called "Eternity" and I didn't feel really drawn to this one (at least not to do it right now, it looks great). The last one is the one that just took my breathe away...

It was called "Joy". Wow. God, You are AMAZING. And so faithful. I've only just started the study, but its already hit me at the core of my issues...

Getting caught up in my own circumstances and my own self-pity, instead of focusing on the joy that is given through the fruit of the spirit. The core scripture is the following text and it has just hit me SOOOO deep because it is so clear about this subject of joy (and by relation, the feelings of despair and defeat I've been having). It is John 15:1-1...Seriously read this...its so good!

John 15

Jesus Is the Vine--Followers Are Branches

¹"I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. ²"Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. ³"You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.

⁴"ABIDE IN ME, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it ABIDES in the vine, so neither can you unless you ABIDE IN ME. ⁵"I am the vine, you are the branches; he who ABIDES IN ME and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. ⁶"If anyone does not ABIDE IN ME, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.

⁷"If you ABIDE IN ME, and My words ABIDE in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. ⁸"My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. ⁹"Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; ABIDE IN MY LOVE. ¹⁰"If you keep My commandments, you will ABIDE in My love; just as I have kept My Father's commandments and ABIDE in His love. ¹¹These things I have spoken to you so that My JOY may be in you, and that your JOY may be made FULL. (Emphasis mine)

These verses are just so neat...I mean it makes a reference to abiding in Christ 10 times! This relationship between the vine and the vinedresser and the branches is key to how I've been feeling. Jesus talks about life when we do not abide in Him, it is desolate, withered and futile. But it glorifies God that we bear fruit and prove to be His disciples. Abide in Him. Abide in His love. Theses are the directions Jesus has for us.

And the neatest part for me is the last sentence. The reason, the purpose of speaking these things to you is so that His JOY may be in me and that my JOY may be made full. Our joy is in abiding in Christ and not abiding in ourselves...it is in glorifying God, not glorifying the circumstances of life.

Wow...God is so good and so faithful and so sovereign and so compassionate. I have failed over the past month to see that joy is the fruit of the Spirit, it is not a circumstance that I may happen to be in one day and not happen to be in the next.

I am still learning and working through this, but I just wanted to proclaim how faithful God is when we seek Him. He has totally answered my prayer and is healing my heart from my selfishness. He proves over and over, everday that He is a God who is loving and compassionate and always FAITHFUL.