joy
The joy of salvation is an amazing thing to think about. How awesome it is to know that we are saved by the one true king, the King of Glory? How cool is it to know that He took our punishment upon Himself and suffered whipping, bleeding, and ultimately, death for every single one of us on the cross? No one but God has ever been that generous in our lives.
Have you ever wondered what made God decide to send His son to die for all of us? Well it’s because of the first sin by Adam and Eve. Then it all went downhill from there unfortunately. When God realized that Adam and Eve had both sinned against Him, He banished them from paradise which was the Garden of Eden. They took their chances by eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and they were left with disaster and consequences, not just for them, but for all of mankind.
So, thanks a lot Adam and Eve, you screwed up for yourself and you screwed us! The good news, though, is that God did know that this sin was going to happen and He already had a plan of grace in His mind and He knew just how to take care of it.
He decided to have His one and only son, Jesus, be born of a virgin and save the world from all of people’s sin, pain and turmoil. Jesus knew even before He was born that He would end up dying on the cross.  To think that He went to the cross and died for us with love on His mind, and He did it willingly. That must have taken Him a lot of courage.
He even prayed in the garden that the cup of sorrow would be taken away from Him, if it was God’s will. But He knew He would have to die to save all of us.  He died so that each one of us could become clean again and become right with God. He offers us eternal life and eternal salvation with Him and His Father freely. All we have to do is ask Him! How awesome is that. To think that we have salvation waiting for us, and a place with God and Jesus in Heaven, just because God loves us so much.
The joy that we have through knowing Jesus personally, can be amazing as well. He allows us to come to Him, whenever, wherever we are, no matter what we may doing, look like or feel like. He accepts us for who we really are and He doesn’t judge us for it either.
He accepts all of our sin, and our past mistakes and our flaws. He sees us as perfect. He sees us as His precious children that it was worth dying for us on that cross. There is no other perfect love other than the love of the Father. It says in the Bible, in John 15:13, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
Even when we may not feel worthy to be in God’s presence, He is always willing to listen to us, to sustain us and to be there for us through anything. Psalm 51:12 says, “Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.” Even though it can be overwhelming to think of accepting such a gracious gift such as salvation, why would anyone not want to accept it and be free from sin, death and eternal damnation in Hell?
Who wouldn’t want an eternal place in Heaven with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit? I know I wouldn’t want to pass that up for anything.
No matter how I may be feeling some days it is always such a relief to know that God is always with me and that I am saved. It is a shame that people have the misconception of God being an angry person at the whole world. people may be afraid of God because they know they sin, and they may be afraid of what God could do to them. We all could be afraid of God, but He doesn’t want is to be. Even though we sin, He still wants us to experience all the joy this Earthly life has to offer.  God doesn’t see our flaws, He sees every single one of us as ransomed individuals, children of the King, if we come to Him and accept salvation.  You can be free of fear and death, just by believing that God has saved you and wants a relationship with you.
We should consider ourselves blessed to be ransomed by the King. After all, He could have just let us rot in Hell, but He loved us enough to take our burdens upon Himself and offer Himself in our place.
May you always find that joy that God offers each one of us through Jesus paying the ultimate price. Life is too short to not be happy. Get out there and enjoy life to the fullest, while looking forward to the joy of what is to come.
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