JoyAndGladness

The following is from Joy Of The Lord ⇒
Listen to what Moses told Israel what would happen if they did not respect and appreciate the blessings of Himself and His gifts:

Because thou servedst not the Lord thy the Lord with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things; Translated from KJV

Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the Lord shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee.

The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand;

A nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the old, nor shew favour to the young:

And he shall eat the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruit of thy land, until thou be destroyed: which also shall not leave thee either corn, wine, or oil, or the increase of thy kine, or flocks of thy sheep, until he have destroyed thee.

Our Lord Jesus Christ is the Truth explaining to us why He created us and what plans He has for us.

In His revelation of the Truth about Himself and us we find that He desires relationship.

As we look back at the passage from Deuteronomy we hear Moses talking about joy and gladness and the fact that that is what the Lord wanted to see in us.

Furthermore, Moses talks about Serving The Lord, so it is important for us to know what it means to Serve The Lord.

Essentially, Serving The Lord is fulfilling His purpose in creating you.

We know that the Lord created us to be like Him - in His image. But for us to be like Him we must like Him.

We must have an affinity for Him, like what He likes, despise what He despises. We must desire His presence. We must enjoy listening to what He has to say.

Obviously, you can't command people to
- like you
- be like you
- be joyful
- be glad

So, what do you do with people, who are born in sin with an unholy tendency to rebel?

You tell them that they don't have to be that way. That there is another Way.

Those who hear about the goodness of Christ, His love, His sacrifice, His plans for them AND
are attracted to Him, receive Him, are Born Again by Him, are transformed by Him and are filled with Him.

And when a person is attracted to the Lord His Holy Spirit manifests love for Him, and joy about Him and gladness that He found them and gave Himself to them.

There is no command greater or superceding this one as it is foundational to our life InChrist:
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Once we have come unto and into Him we become One with Him and so we are in agreement such that what He values, we value and what He desires, we desire and what He wants to do, we do.