J.O.Y.

Matt.23:37 “Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.”

J.O.Y. – Jesus first, yourself last and others in between; a formula for joy taught in Sunday school based on our scripture reference for today. Jesus has already made peace for you with God by making you right with God. Focus on pleasing God alone and not performing to impress any man. When I was in paid employment, one of the unwritten mantras of the organization that our bosses drilled it into us and we drilled into our teams, was that there is no excuse for non-performance.

Regardless of what the challenges were, if the boss sets a project deliverable, it must be delivered on that day. If the team had to work for twenty hours for the next seven days to achieve it, then that is what they had to do. And guess what? A person’s performance track record does not count for much. The moment that person stops performing, it is only a matter of time before the organization will let the person go even if the person is a special one. If you receive the gift of God, the gift of Christmas, you have peace with God and peace with self.

#3. Peace With Others. When you have peace with God and peace with self, inevitably you will have peace with others. Peaceful people bring peace into their relationships. People that are not at peace with themselves always bring chaos into their relationships. In my role as a pastor, I get to relate with a lot of people. I have met people who have problems with person A, person B, person C, person D, and person E. All of them are saying the same thing and the person is saying God sees my heart. Yes, your heart is very chaotic.

The truth is what you are is what you bring. You cannot bring what you do not have in you. If you do, it would be plastic and it would not be sustainable. After a while who you really are will eventually surface. You have to sort yourself out because hurting people hurt people and loving people love people. You cannot love the God you cannot see if you do not love the man that you can see. You cannot love the man that you can see if you do not love yourself that you live with.

Prayer: Holy Spirit, heal my heart so that Your love can flow through effortlessly, in Jesus Name. Amen!