Full

"These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full." When we read that, most of us quietly turn it into a promise about our mood.

Jesus said it only hours before His arrest, and in the sentence just before it He gave the condition: "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love" (15:10). The joy He offers is His own joy. It does not rise and fall with what is happening to us. It flows through obedience the way sap flows through a branch. He is not promising us an easier week either, because seven verses later He tells the same disciples, "If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you."

That shows us what we have often been doing. We have wanted the fruit while pulling away from the vine. We ask to be full of joy, we skip the staying close, and then we decide the promise was weak.

So hear His warning the way He meant it. God does not hold back joy because He is in a bad mood. A branch that will not stay joined to the vine simply has nothing to draw on, and Jesus says such a branch "is withered" (15:6). That happens slowly, it does not hurt while it is happening, and nobody notices until the wood is dry. Yet the same chapter holds the door open: "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you" (15:7). The Vine has not moved. Stay joined to Him, and His joy will keep flowing into you.

Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 3 is The House of Mourning (Ecclesiastes 7:2).

All 365 readings in Daily Manna