Last night my pastor friend, Josh, told me about an upcoming sermon in which he makes the wonderful and astonishing claim that obedience and joy are essentially the same. I stand there in my kitchen, overwhelmed with the truth of it. When I’m most joyful, I’m most surrendered. Josh says, “Yes! Because surrender and obedience are what we are made for. So that’s when we are most truly joyful.”
Surrender and obedience is what we are made for.
I look back on the most joyful times in my life. Yes: I was most surrendered and most obedient to all the Lord was asking of me. And the times of most despair? Could it be that something in my life wasn’t aligned and wasn’t surrendered?
I ask the Lord today: How might I surrender more? How might I obey more and more? What are you asking of me, Lord? And the answer is yes.
May our joy overflow today.