
by Elizabeth Burgard Fulgaro copyright 2020
Oct 22 to Jan 6 reflections from an upcoming book for tending hurting hearts at Christmas
Just because I can give expression in words for feelings in hard times does not mean I live a downtrodden, discouraged or desperate life. My days are mostly filled with JOY. This joy from God because joy is never of your own making. You cannot create it or make it happen.
Jesus-joy is the only true joy and it is a joy which remains because it is not put on. It wells up from deep within. With each progressive way that you get to know God better throughout your life, it is as if where before you were wandering aimlessly in a starving, dry place, scavenging to get by, now you have come upon an oasis still surrounded by the desolation, but different for it is fed by a ceaseless underground stream. Thus, there is a source of thriving and not just surviving life there. The water literally wells up! It gathers below hidden from view in quantities ever-flowing which must out! Overflowing fountains offering those who choose to come and find this place a revivifying drink. This is not like an off-and-on geyser which bursts forth and fades until the pressure builds again. Once you find this Living Water of God which quenches every thirst, it enables a way of being where literally in your troubles there is rest for your soul. In your innermost being! Peace. Joy.
Oh, how these we sing about this longed-for, peace-filled, joy-infused state at Christmas! However, the only true place for the peace and joy which are not superficial, but last is through increased intimacy with God. The real joy you seek does not find its source in surface circumstances, but deep-down, foundational facts. About God and His way. How He is and what He promises to do.
You learn to drink from this water and stay refreshed and at rest instead of scavenging in the midst of desert—like problems and troubles which the enemy wants to use to decimate you. But you can remain resolute, strengthened, firm and even bold because you are drinking from the Source. You are nourished by His great truth so though the environment is dry, you are fine and aware and learning and sensing (Him) even now.
You need to know more about God—about Father, Son and Spirit. This comes from spending time focused on Him. This is where His promise comes true. That when you seek Him, He will be found by you and impart over time that increased understanding of Him which becomes your roots reaching down in the Stream. That enables you to live well in the midst of pain. That give you peace that you cannot make up. Side by side with what is hard. Like Christmas as it truly was when Jesus was born. This includes Jesus-joy because of the well within the midst of your today, now welling up in your heart.
Holy One, how I long to be a well for You, filled up and overflowing with Your joy, love and peace. To be a carved out vessel through whom You essence can flow. Help me to place my attention on You in a way You fill my heart in the way for which I yearn. Holy Spirit, You are welcome here. Let Your Living Water flow!
1 Blessed (happy, fortunate, prosperous, and enviable) is the man who walks and lives not in the counsel of the ungodly [following their advice, their plans and purposes], nor stands [submissive and inactive] in the path where sinners walk, nor sits down [to relax and rest] where the scornful [and the mockers] gather.
2 But his delight and desire are in the law of the Lord, and on His law (the precepts, the instructions, the teachings of God) he habitually meditates (ponders and studies) by day and by night.
3 And he shall be like a tree firmly planted [and tended] by the streams of water, ready to bring forth its fruit in its season; its leaf also shall not fade or wither; and everything he does shall prosper [and come to maturity].
Psalm 1:1-3
37 Now on the final and most important day of the Feast, Jesus stood, and He cried in a loud voice, If any man is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink!
38 He who believes in Me [who cleaves to and trusts in and relies on Me] as the Scripture has said, From his innermost being shall flow [continuously] springs and rivers of living water.
39 But He was speaking here of the Spirit, Whom those who believed (trusted, had faith) in Him were afterward to receive…
John 7:37-39
SONGS (Recommended): YOU CAME TO SET US FREE (Christmas Worship album)
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