Today’s Reading:
Psalm 16
John 10
5 The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and my cup;
Psalm 16:5-6
You support my lot.
6 The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places;
Indeed, my heritage is beautiful to me.
The Spirit of the Lord says,
Joy, pure joy. Unadulterated, unmarred joy. Joy for today and bright hope for tomorrow. Joy shining forth from hearts because of the expectation of My goodness, because of the realization of the reality of My goodness every moment of every day. Joy is a constant companion of thanksgiving, and joy is a great partner for expectation. It is the very best antidote for dread. Live in joy.
7 I will bless the Lord who has counseled me;
Psalm 16:7-9
Indeed, my mind instructs me in the night.
8 I have set the Lord continually before me;
Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
9 Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoices;
My flesh also will dwell securely.
Seeds of joy have been planted in your heart. Let me tell you how to care for them, how to cultivate them and how to make your heart a well-watered garden. Water your heart with thanksgiving. Tend your heart with recounting My goodness, My faithfulness and My follow-through. Speak life over the garden of your heart with scriptures, with promises, with psalms and with songs of truth and praise. Sing over the garden of your heart like you would a tender child — protectively, full of love and hopes and dreams. Never for a moment as you sing over a beautiful baby do you think about his or her potential failures. You think about the perfect gift that they are. You dwell on the miracle of their being, and you dream big big dreams for them. So too should you approach the singing cultivation of the garden of your heart. Sing with expectation. Sing with thanksgiving. Sing with an expectation of wild success. Sing because of the miracles. Sing because of My follow-through. Sing because you are here for another day. This is how you cultivate the seeds of joy that I have planted in your heart. This is how your heart becomes a garden of unbridled, uncontrolled, unmanicured joy.
10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
John 10:10
The bees of My favor pollinate opportunity from the abundant joy in your heart. Your joy gives My bees of favor something to work with to pollinate opportunity. Give Me something to work with. Focus on cultivating the joy that I have seeded inside of you. Focus on tending that garden and causing it to grow beyond the bounds of your heart and life. Cause it to expand out so much that it unknowingly touches the lives of others, and watch as My bees of favor cause opportunities to bloom for you as a result of this great joy you have cultivated.
11 You will make known to me the path of life;
Psalm 16:11
In Your presence is fullness of joy;
In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.
Your garden of joy can be as big as you make it. It can be a private garden walled off to others, though that is just a small joy. Or it can grow wildly and unkept, untamed and over-spilling the walls of your heart. This is what I desire for you. This is the evidence of your joy being made full. Where is the fullness of joy found? It’s found in My Presence. Live a life that is marked by overgrown, untamable joy that spills over and touches and tickles everyone around you. The seeds are there, right inside of you. I planted them Myself with My own hands. It’s yours to cultivate. It’s yours to grow.
How to Respond
- Live a lifestyle of thanksgiving, of recounting the blessings and favor of the Lord, of singing and worshipping Him, of speaking His promises over your life, heart, soul and mind.
- Pray, Lord, help me to cultivate a wild garden overflowing with joy from my heart. Let it be so wild that the people I touch with that joy are even conduits of the joy You have planted inside me. Let me not hide the light of my joy under a bushel or behind a garden wall. Help me to instead cultivate it and cause it to grow to uncontainable proportions that it may bless everyone I meet and even some that I don’t meet.
- Declare, the Lord has planted seeds of joy in my heart, and He has given me the tools and the strategy to make that joy full grown.
- Decree, I will purposefully cultivate full joy in my heart and life by dwelling in the Presence of the Lord. I will live in a way that this joy the Lord has planted in my heart overflows and touches the lives of many.
For more encouragement from Glory & the New Wine, check out the post from this day one year ago: The Light of Truth Will Evict the Darkness.
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