THURSDAY'S SERVING OF JOY JUICE: A Special Invitation for Peace and Joy

            Have you had your JOY JUICE today?  Ask Jesus to join you as you begin your day.  He may be waiting for your special invitation.

             Marsha Brickhouse Smith wrote a devotional entitled “Is Jesus Truly Living in Your Heart?” She posed some very honest questions regarding why we don’t always feel that Jesus is “there” in our spiritual house.  She writes: “Lord, I asked you to live in my heart, but there are times it feels so empty. Are you really here? Lately, as I've prayed, it seems the prayers go no higher than the ceiling." 

           "Well, my precious child," He (Jesus) responded to my heart, "I was waiting for you to ask. There are reasons for the times when your heart feels so empty. You see, when I try to occupy that space in your heart -- that room that I need to go into -- I try the door, but find it locked. I love you so much that I gave you the keys to all the rooms. And there are those doors I cannot walk through because they are locked. You asked me to be Lord of all, but when I try to enter those rooms, the doors will not budge."

            Has Jesus been barricaded from entering some of the rooms of my and your spiritual houses---rooms when we hide our secret sins; places of independence where we think we can “do it ourselves”; maybe even corners where we have things of our past stashed and don’t want to let go.  How foolish to think that He doesn’t already know what we’ve done, how we feel and think!

             May we give Jesus the Master key to every room of our life so that we may be truly “at home” with Him, living in peace and joy.