Something About The Joy

In the Daily Light devotional reading for this morning: "Jesus spoke to them, saying, 'Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid'." Matthew 14:26 A comforting reassurance is at the beginning and the end of that simple statement, because in the middle is Jesus. Any difficulty that comes to us is Jesus coming, in whatever form it takes. We can rest in whatever storms are confronting us today, because Jesus is in our midst. "Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today." Exodus 14:13

Janet, in her God With Us: Finding Joy post yesterday, reminded us that we need to listen to God. Charles Stanley says we need to come to God with expectancy--assuming that He will speak to us when we listen. This morning I come expectantly to listen, asking Him what He wants to say to me. He says the same He always says: "I love you." "Anything else?" I ask. "No. That's all." When God says "I love you," (and He's always saying it, constantly, over and over again), that's all He says. He never says, "I love you, but. . ."

On Sunday our pastor taught us about Pharoah, his hardhearted refusal to bow to the will of the Creator. And about the Israelites, their hardheated refusal to trust that God would care for them, and lead them into the wealthy land He had promised to give them. And then he reminded us of the warning to all of us, in Hebrews, that we need to keep our hearts soft toward God. Hard-heartedness can take different forms. We usually think of hardheartedness as being rebellion against God, a stubborn obstinacy, a refusal to submit. But for most of us Christians, hard-heartedness is simply an unwillingness--a seeming inability--to fully trust in God and abandon ourselves to Him. All of Hebrews is a defense of the trust-truth, the fact that we can do nothing to save ourselves, and simply need to trust in all that Jesus did. The Jewish people prided themselves in the law and their love for doing the right things. They were hard-hearted in their righteousness, and they believed they we