Joy from God by the Holy Spirit and the Little Book of Colossians

Okay, that special treat I promised you will have to wait another post. I wanted to write something really quick while it is still sort of January 1st.

Last night, I was feeling blue after having been inside too long and bored. I started thinking thoughts like, What I am I doing here? What's the purpose of all this? I picked up my Bible, and as I was opening it I said a quick prayer to God that was packed with sincerity and desperateness. I asked Him to show me my purpose, my worth, the fact that I wasn't just killing time and nothing more during Christmas break and the rest of my life... and He showed me. Boy, did He show me.

Considering the state I was in, it made sense to me to look up faithfulness and related words in the concordance. My search brought me to Colossians 1:23, found under faith. I read the passage containing the verse and was filled with joy. I kept reading--the same passage and passages after it until I stopped somewhere in Chapter 3. I loved it! God knew just what I needed to read. It wasn't just words on paper, however. It was--and is--alive! God literally showed me the answer to my prayer and so encouraged me that He filled me with increasing joy through the Holy Spirit. The Word is the living Word.

Paul starts out in Colossians 1:15 painting a beautiful picture of Christ in His preeminence. Then he addresses me about faithfulness. He moves on to talk about the joy he himself has in suffering, just as Christ rejoiced in His suffering. Finally, in Chapter 3, he writes of our life in Christ and taking on our new identity, which is Christ Himself.

This is what God showed me about faithfulness to Christ:

"[21] And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, [22] he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,"--and now the part that got me, the answer--"[23] if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister."

Another part that stood out to me was verses 28 and 29, where Paul is talking about his ministry: "Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me."

Also note 2:6-7: "Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving."

In Chapter 3, God provided me a remedy, rather a preventive, for my troubles. "If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth" (vv. 1-2).

You just have to read it. All of it. Colossians is an incredible book of the Bible. It's four chapters, so it's short, and the amount of time it takes to read depends on God and the reader. I'll make it very easy for you. Just click here.

You may have read Colossians before, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't read it again. I've read Colossians 1 before, but this time when I read it, heart open desperate for an answer, it was fresh, as if I had never read it before. It was illumination by the Holy Spirit. I need to "keep on keeping on."

Praise God for His faithfulness!... And His love, grace, patience, joy, kindness, compassion, wisdom, knowledge, good will, justice, humor, majesty, power...