Wednesday, December 21, 2022
Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13
Repeat The Sounding Joy!
The Advent season is a season of excitement and anticipation. It is the season where we focus on the birth of Jesus. The Jews waited over 400 years in this anticipation. They anticipated His arrival and waited expectantly, and God did what He promised He would do. He sent His Son, the promised Messiah, to be born of a virgin. He came to save us from our sins.
The Advent season takes on a journey to hope, peace, love, and joy. Even though we focus on these during Advent, they are important aspects of our Christian walk every day. These elements perpetuate our faith in Jesus Christ as we build on the fact of His birth. Jesus is the firm foundation and from that firm foundation all growth comes.
With Jesus at the center of the Advent Wreath, we see hope, peace, love, and joy forming an infinite circle around Him. It is a chorus that keeps us tethered to Him in a resounding harmony as we come together in Him. It builds like the chords in a beautiful piece of music. We find all of these things in Him – the foundation of our faith. In Jesus we find hope, and that hope leads to peace. Hope and peace set us free to love, and all of these finally lead to Joy – all built upon each other and the foundation of Christ. It is the song of our heart that goes on forever, never ending, but repeating an endless cycle of resounding joy.
Joy being a condition of the heart more than an experience of the flesh is hard for people to understand. If we consider the fact that the Bible speaks of being “filled with joy”, it seems there must be some kind of container. The fruit of the spirit is all related to the condition of the heart. We understand the “heart” to be center of one’s being understanding that everything emanates from that source. When our “heart” is filled with hate, then our life is deeply affected with negative actions and attitudes. A heart filled with hope, peace and love will naturally exhibit joy!
So, how is the heart filled? By “believing” according to Romans15:13; in other words, through faith. It is faith that rises above the noise and fears of this world and brings the promise of hope. Hope is based in the fact of the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God’s gift for our salvation! Praise Him! “Repeat the sounding joy, repeat the sounding joy! Repeat! Repeat the sounding joy!”
