Jubilee

We take hiatuses from things when our emotional landscape becomes parched.

Social media, dessert, and television all get purged when we feel the need to clean up our lives.

We try so hard to acquire joy.

This might even be the reason we’re fasting from things, removing the items that numb us, in an attempt to awaken ourselves and heighten our perception of the world and life itself.

It's a search for jubilee.

I go through seasons of intense joy and satisfaction, but then it fades away.

I come alive when I forget the world, but when I’m pulled back in due to the requirements of work and play, all the struggle comes rushing back again.

Fighting for joy is a sort of uphill battle; a war against the world.

Everything in our culture seems to direct us to the superficial, the fake, and the material; promising fulfillment and joy with every new hobby, outfit, or app.

Joy is something so important.

A beautiful thing that only the Son of Light provides, but this fulfilling emotion, one that He alone has stamped on our very souls, has been stolen.

Or rather,

We’ve surrendered it with outstretched arms, letting it be filched from us by the Thief in the Shadows.

This Thief, a terrible, unfeeling, greedy being, is so becoming to the human eye, that when he approaches and offers us his hand, we tend to fall for him.

Now granted, we don’t normally know that he’s approached us.

He’s the Prince of Deception.

This Thief is a shapeshifter, a serpent in disguise.

He comes in the form of an interesting app, an indulgent sweet, or a voice in our minds.

He whispers from the darkness, testing us, waiting for us to become weak.

And we are weak.

We, as sinful human beings, are inherently weak.

And that makes us perfect prey.

The Thief waits for us to crumble under the weight of life, watching for the very moment that we crack and begin to yearn for comfort and numbness...desiring to get away from what’s right in front of us: our obligations, jobs, and families.

He pounces on the broken heart, and shatters it.

He promises delight and satisfaction in indulgence and sin.

He works in secret and darkness.

He is afraid of light.

The Thief offers so much.

Kingdoms, castles, treasures, status, fulfillment….and yes, even joy.

But it's all a guise.

In truth, the Thief has no power, no wealth of his own.

Nothing to offer.

Nothing to give.

He’s an imposter, a copycat, an actor.

And he’s been caught redhanded in the act of deceit.

The authorities have been called.

The Son of Light, the One willing to risk and give His very life for you and me, has already waged war on the Thief of Darkness.

The Thief has been conquered, and found guilty of every offence.

He’s received the life sentence.

He, unlike you and me, has no future, no hope, and no chance at acquiring joy.

You have been rescued.

You’ve been chosen.

You’ve been freed.

Put your trust in the One who gave it all for your sake.

The One who will never leave.

The Son of Light.

Your heart...your joy... has been taken back from the thief.

The King has avenged you.

The pain, the loneliness, the anxiety, the discontentment, the hatred, the jealousy, and the frustration, are all only temporary.

Ask the Son for peace, comfort, contentment, and joy.

He supplies it, and He’s pleased to give it.

Just ask.

Receive jubilee.