No One Can Rob You of That Joy

Meditations for Seeking the Life in Christ

The Gospel of John 

September 19, 2024

No One Can Rob You of That Joy

So you have sorrow now, but I will see you again;

then you will rejoice, and no one can rob you of that joy.

John  16:22

In John 16: 12-22, Jesus is describing to his disciples the indescribable. God’s New Creation is about to be birthed into existence. How can you describe that? Jesus gave his disciples just a taste of what was coming, and then tells them to trust the Holy Spirit. One of the ministries of the Holy Spirit is to teach us the significance of what happened on those three days, and how to live out of this new reality.

The two greatest aspects of God’s New Creation are the gift of the Holy Spirit and the gift of prayer. The Holy Spirit is Jesus’ very presence with the believer. The Holy Spirit is our guide, our teacher, the One who empowers our souls to live as fully devoted followers of Jesus.

Jesus told his disciples, “So you have sorrow now, but I will see you again; then you will rejoice, and no one can rob you of that joy” (John 16:22 Emphasis mine). You are reading this today because of the truth of Jesus’ statement. The joy the disciples experienced at seeing the resurrected Jesus changed them forever. It was that joy that compelled them to follow Jesus’ command to go into the whole world and make disciples of Jesus for the transformation of the world.

This joy wasn’t just for those eleven disciples with Jesus the night he was arrested. St. Stephen experienced that joy and so did St. Paul. Teresa of Avila experienced that joy, as did Saint Teresa of Calcutta. So did Martin Luther, John Wesley and Detrick Bonhoeffer.

My Takeaway: So have I, and so can you! 

Sē’lah

My book on prayer,

First Think, Then Pray

is now available on Amazon Kindle.

 

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2024 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.