Shalom,

My Utmost For His Highest by Oswald Chambers is excellent today!

That My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. — John 15:11

What was the joy that Jesus had? It is an insult to use the word happiness in connection with Jesus Christ. The joy of Jesus was the absolute self-surrender and self-sacrifice of Himself to His Father, the joy of doing that which the Father sent Him to do. "I delight to do Thy will." (Psalm 40:8) Jesus prayed that our joy might go on fulfilling itself until it was the same joy as His. Have I allowed Jesus Christ to introduce His joy to me?

The full flood of my life is not in bodily health, not in external happenings, not in seeing God’s work succeed, but in the perfect understanding of God, and in the communion with Him that Jesus Himself had. The first thing that will hinder this joy is the captious  (petty) irritation of thinking out circumstances. The cares of this world, said Jesus, will choke God’s word. Before we know where we are, we are caught up in the shows of things. All that God has done for us is the mere threshold; He wants to get us to the place where we will be His witnesses and proclaim Who Jesus is.      

                                                                              

Be rightly related to God (born again), find your joy there, and out of you will flow rivers of living water. Be a centre for Jesus Christ to pour living water through. Stop being self-conscious, stop being a sanctified prig (haughty), and live the life hid with Christ. The life that is rightly related to God is as natural as breathing wherever it goes. The lives that have been of most blessing to you are those who were unconscious of it.                                                                

AMEN! The Christian life is NOT meant to be a life on constant struggle to "be good"! It is to be a daily adventure in faith where we  are fellowshipping with HIM, growing in the Word, understanding the Word and obeying the Word until living this way becomes as normal and natural as breathing! When was the last time you actually thought about your breathing? Do you see? THAT is the life we were born again to live! AMEN! Here is another older song from Hillsong called "Irresistible":

Shalom in Him!