susan b steen

I have told you this so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!   John 15:11 NLT

Full joy

In many ways, we live in bleak times. Millions feel disillusioned with life while millions more feel uncertain
about the future—especially young people. Many of you in Generation X have been victims of a great social
experiment in which parents who never grew up cast aside time-honored moral values and, in the phrase of
the 1960s, did their own thing.

Nevertheless, there is someone to believe in, something to grasp, and someone to trust. You need to go to
the next letter of the alphabet, to Y—as in “Why do I exist. Why was I created? And what am I living for?”

According to Jesus, you were created for joy. “These things I have spoken to you,” Jesus said, “that My joy
may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.”

The things Jesus spoke of were His teachings about bearing fruit. We were created to bear fruit for God,
which essentially means to become like Jesus: His mind becomes our mind, His purpose becomes our purpose
. And there’s only one way to produce such luscious fruit, according to Jesus: “Abide in Me” (John 15:4). This
is the secret of spiritual growth and the key to overflowing joy. Are you bearing spiritual fruit?