Tears Wrapped in Joy (Part2)

Lately I’ve been unable to blog because of my health has its ups and downs. This past week, it’s been down-down-down.  As I continue my time with the Lord in His precious Word and prayer, I know I’ll come out on the other side.  I was lead to read John’s Gospel account of our Lord’s crucifixion and the time leading up to the cross.

I began reading in John 17 where our Lord Jesus Christ prayed with His disciples just before He went to the garden of Gethsemane to spend His final time with the Father before the crucifixion.  (note)I’ve read John 17 at least 5 times in the past 4 years. (I know this because I write in my Bible a lot!  In the margins, I write dates when I read/study a certain passage, the truth the Lord shows me in that passage, references to other Scripture and more!)  I never “saw” what I saw yesterday.  I was amazed, saddened, prayerful, thankful and filled with joy!
God’s Word is ALIVE and full of newness each time we read/study/search it! I call this the “WOWNESS of our Almighty God”!

• Even though Jesus was filled “with sorrow unto death…”, He prayed in John 17: 1-5

“…Father, it’s time. Display the bright splendor of your Son,so the Son in turn may show your bright splendor. You put Him in charge of everything human so He might give real and eternal life to all in his charge. And this is the real and eternal life: That they know You, The one and only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you sent. I glorified You on earth by completing down to the last detail what you assigned me to do. And now, Father, glorify Me with your very own spendor- The very splendor I had in your presence before there was a world.”(TMB) 

• Then Jesus Prays For His Disciples: 6-19

“I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name–the name you gave me–so that they may be one as we are one.  While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled. “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.  My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.

• Jesus Prays for All Believers: 20-23

For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified. “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one:  I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

• The Purpose For Jesus Prayer: 24-26

“Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”

My only comment here is I KNOW that our precious Savior and Lord Jesus Christ, amidst His human pain and spiritual suffering, still did as the Father willed.  His crucifixion is the totality of trust and complete obedience!  This releases JOY for all the world to see!

John 16:22-24 sums it all up!
“And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man takes from you. And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you.  Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.”