"Fullness of Joy" -2

Have you ever heard the saying, Looking beyond the forest to see the trees? That is what is required for real fellowship with God. We need to be able to look beyond all this stuff, and all of our guilt and shame; which requires us to focus on God, and Him alone. In the closing verse from yesterday, which in case you missed it, it was Proverbs 18:2; what the fool has no delight in was understanding, which is wisdom. The reason that this verse was so gripping to me, and the reason that I felt it was relevant was the word 'delight', which is parallel to the word interest; meaning that 'A fool has no interest in wisdom, but is just interested in himself'. Sometimes that can be so true for what holds us back from having real fellowship, because, we can not actually discover all that God is, while we are stuck on stupid. And, as far as that goes, the same works for our relationships with others; including our families, who need us to have an interest in wisdom, so that we may be the 'man of God' we have been created to be. Don't get the connection yet? What does this have to do with 'Fullness of Joy'? It is interesting how much our lack of real fellowship robs us of our joy; maybe not right away, because at that particular time all that really matters is our self, and not the ones we are to be spending time with; but just you wait. These are moments that are never regained, and you relive them over and over! If only I had spent more quality time with my children, my wife, my best friend. This is played out in our hearts and minds for a long, long time; and you can bet that it robs you of your joy and creates a very heavy heart. Going back to 1 John 1:1-4, and the declaration by John in verse 4, "And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full"; what John is declaring by the use of the word 'full' is completeness of joy; that our joy may be complete or made perfect. This is very critical to finding peace, real peace that passes all understanding. You can not have real peace without complete joy, because they go hand in hand together. However, this is the glorious grace that God has given: whereas, because our focus is upon Him and what He has done, and not upon us and what we have done, we can have complete joy in Him; which brings with it, the peace of God, that passes all understanding... Delight in that!!!