Did you know that God’s goal for us is to be complete? (James 1:2 – 4; 1 John 1:4)
Complete.
1 John 1:4 says complete joy.
Everything in our lives is the pursuit of completion.
We want the end.
We move as quickly as possible.
We get angry when things take so long.
We describe relationships in terms of “they complete me.”
Interestingly, our goal is the same goal God has.
The difference?
We go about it differently than God.
What John tells us in 1 John 1 is that completion will come through the transformation of Jesus and in community.
James tells us in chapter 1 of his book that completion comes through trials.
For us, we try to find completion on our own, away from community and certainly not through trials.
Why?
Community and trials are difficult. They are painful.
The reality is, you can’t find completion and joy without community and trials. We must engage them.
Right now complete joy for you is on the other side of trials and community.
What will carry you through? The transformation and change found only in Jesus.
It is the redemption, grace and love of Jesus that will give us the courage and power to walk through trials and the difficulty of community. It is what gives us the power to face our stories and our hurts and not allow them to become bitterness and anger, but become beautiful.
I know it is not easy to face your story and hurt. There are things in your past you want to pretend didn’t happen. You are tired of facing your past. You are tired of feeling “this way or that.” Yet, as a mentor told me, “Our breakthrough is often right on the other side of the decision not to quit.”
Here’s what we’re chasing after: Joy.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones said, Joy is something very deep and profound, something that affects the whole and entire personality. In other words it comes to this; there is only one thing that can give true joy and that is contemplation of the Lord Jesus Christ. He satisfies my mind; He satisfies my emotions; He satisfies my every desire. He and His great salvation include the whole personality and nothing less, and in Him I am complete. Joy, in other words, is the response and the reaction of the soul to a knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.
