I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. ---John15:15

We cannot truly experience the joy of offering unless we fully give. Surrender is the hardest thing. “If…I would!” “Maybe I should give my life to God.” There is no joy in giving up. 英 When we are truly given up, the holy spirit gives us a taste of the joy of the Lord Jesus. The ultimate goal of self-sacrifice is to lay down your life for your “friend” (the Lord Jesus). The greatest desire of the holy spirit is to lay down his life for Jesus. The thought of giving oneself never touched our hearts, for giving oneself is the love of the holy spirit.

The Lord’s life of self-sacrifice is an example to us. —“I am willing to do your will, my God.” The Lord’s giving himself is full of joy. Have I completely surrendered to Jesus Christ? If Jesus Christ is not our goal, there is no benefit to our giving. And if our devotion is upon him, then the work of modeling will be gradually made manifest.

Be careful not to let natural kinship prevent you from loving. The cruelest way to kill love is to despise natural kinship. The only attraction of the saints is the Lord Jesus himself. Love for God is not an emotional thing, because it is the most practical thing for the saints to love God with his love. “I have called you friends.” The foundation of this friendship is the new life within us. This new life is connected only to the life of God, not to the old life, an unspeakably humble, undefiled, absolutely faithful to God.

Dear God, let your praise be heard today. Let your joy and joy be heard everywhere. How I long for joy—joy in God, joy in the holy spirit, joy in love. May joy fill the house of the holy spirit throughout the day.