Week 24, Day 5: Full of Joy

Today’s Reading:  Revelation 1:1-2:29

Some thoughts from yesterday’s reading…

Here is the Saturday post, to make up for the missed post earlier in the week!  Lord willing, I will get back on a more reasonable posting schedule starting Monday of next week.  This has been a “meeting week” so we have been pretty busy.  I am sorry to make the posts so late in the evening.

John close his second epistle by saying that he he had more that he wanted to tell his audience, but that he wanted to wait until they were face to face so that their “joy may be full” (2 John 1:12).  This verse struck me, as it relates an attitude that we should all have as Christians.  We should want to be able to be with our brethren, and spend time with them.  It should be a great blessing to us to be able to associate with brethren under all kinds of circumstances.  Even though John had to write to these brethren and warn them of various situations, and even problems, he still wanted to be with them and deliver the rest of his message to them in person.  It seems to me that he longed for the opportunity to spend time with them!

Unfortunately, today many Christians can’t seem to make time to spend with fellow Christians.  They seem to enjoy the company of their worldly friends much more than the company of their Christian friends.  Perhaps they think that their Christian friends are just too boring.  Or maybe they see Christian friends as stifling the things that they think to be fun.  This seems to indicate a tendency to indulge in worldliness, rather than finding the joy and excitement of being a Christian!

God does not want us to mope through life, bemoaning the things that we give up to be faithful to Him.  He wants us to be a joyous people.  Several times in his writings, Paul tells us to rejoice, even telling us to “rejoice always” (1 Thessalonians 5:16).  If we cannot enjoy time with brethren now, how do we think we will be happy in heaven?  If we think our brethren are sticklers now, dampening our “fun”, then how do we think heaven is a place we want to be?  We should want to take advantage of every opportunity we can to spend time with those of “like precious faith” (as is so often prayed in our assemblies) so that we can be encouraged and edified by them.  If that is the case, then our joy will be made full, just as John hoped for himself and his audience in this epistle!