The Joy of God maxlucado.com
The Joy of God - December 26, 2025
“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9 NKJV).
No man had more reason to be miserable than Jesus, yet no one was more joyful. He was ridiculed. Those who didn’t ridicule him wanted favors. Then they wanted to kill him. He was accused of a crime he had never committed. Witnesses were hired to lie. They crucified him. He left as he came—penniless.
He should have been miserable and bitter. But he wasn’t. He was joyful! He possessed a joy that possessed him. I call it a sacred delight. Sacred because it’s not of the earth. Delight because it’s just that: the joy of God. He offers it to you, my friend—a sacred delight!
Luke 8:26-56
The Message
The Madman and the Pigs
26-29 They sailed on to the country of the Gerasenes, directly opposite Galilee. As he stepped out onto land, a madman from town met him; he was a victim of demons. He hadn’t worn clothes for a long time, nor lived at home; he lived in the cemetery. When he saw Jesus he screamed, fell before him, and howled, “What business do you have messing with me? You’re Jesus, Son of the High God, but don’t give me a hard time!” (The man said this because Jesus had started to order the unclean spirit out of him.) Time after time the demon threw the man into convulsions. He had been placed under constant guard and tied with chains and shackles, but crazed and driven wild by the demon, he would shatter the bonds.
30-31 Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”
“Mob. My name is Mob,” he said, because many demons afflicted him. And they begged Jesus desperately not to order them to the bottomless pit.
32-33 A large herd of pigs was grazing and rooting on a nearby hill. The demons begged Jesus to order them into the pigs. He gave the order. It was even worse for the pigs than for the man. Crazed, they stampeded over a cliff into the lake and drowned.
34-36 Those tending the pigs, scared to death, bolted and told their story in town and country. People went out to see what had happened. They came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had been sent, sitting there at Jesus’ feet, wearing decent clothes and making sense. It was a holy moment, and for a short time they were more reverent than curious. Then those who had seen it happen told how the demoniac had been saved.
37-39 Later, a great many people from the Gerasene countryside got together and asked Jesus to leave—too much change, too fast, and they were scared. So Jesus got back in the boat and set off. The man whom he had delivered from the demons asked to go with him, but he sent him back, saying, “Go home and tell everything God did in you.” So he went back and preached all over town everything Jesus had done in him.
His Touch
40-42 On his return, Jesus was welcomed by a crowd. They were all there expecting him. A man came up, Jairus by name. He was president of the meeting place. He fell at Jesus’ feet and begged him to come to his home because his twelve-year-old daughter, his only child, was dying. Jesus went with him, making his way through the pushing, jostling crowd.
43-45 In the crowd that day there was a woman who for twelve years had been afflicted with hemorrhages. She had spent every penny she had on doctors but not one had been able to help her. She slipped in from behind and touched the edge of Jesus’ robe. At that very moment her hemorrhaging stopped. Jesus said, “Who touched me?”
When no one stepped forward, Peter said, “But Master, we’ve got crowds of people on our hands. Dozens have touched you.”
46 Jesus insisted, “Someone touched me. I felt power discharging from me.”
47 When the woman realized that she couldn’t remain hidden, she knelt trembling before him. In front of all the people, she blurted out her story—why she touched him and how at that same moment she was healed.
48 Jesus said, “Daughter, you took a risk trusting me, and now you’re healed and whole. Live well, live blessed!”
49 While he was still talking, someone from the leader’s house came up and told him, “Your daughter died. No need now to bother the Teacher.”
50-51 Jesus overheard and said, “Don’t be upset. Just trust me and everything will be all right.” Going into the house, he wouldn’t let anyone enter with him except Peter, John, James, and the child’s parents.
52-53 Everyone was crying and carrying on over her. Jesus said, “Don’t cry. She didn’t die; she’s sleeping.” They laughed at him. They knew she was dead.
54-56 Then Jesus, gripping her hand, called, “My dear child, get up.” She was up in an instant, up and breathing again! He told them to give her something to eat. Her parents were ecstatic, but Jesus warned them to keep quiet. “Don’t tell a soul what happened in this room.”
Our Daily Bread Devotional
Eyes Opened by God
Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. Luke 10:23
By Sheridan Voysey
TODAYS SCRIPTURE
Luke 10:21-24
21In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight. 22All things are delivered to me of my Father: and no man knoweth who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him.
23And he turned him unto his disciples, and said privately, Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see: 24For I tell you, that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.
Todays Devotional
In a café one afternoon, I noticed a toddler with her parents at an adjacent table. As the parents talked with their friends, a pigeon flew in and started pecking crumbs from the floor. Filled with awe at this sight, the little girl tried getting the adults’ attention by squealing with delight. But they never got to see what she saw. They just smiled at her and returned to their conversation.
Jesus once sent His disciples on a preaching mission, which turned out to be tremendously successful (Luke 10:17). “I praise you, Father,” Jesus prayed in response, “because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children” (v. 21). In this case, “little children” didn’t refer to age but status. It was humble, everyday “sinners” who responded to the gospel, while “wise and learned” religious leaders ignored it (7:29-34). While God decides who He reveals Himself to, Jesus always explained more about the kingdom to those who asked (see Matthew 13:36). The leaders had missed seeing who Jesus was because they didn’t really want to know.
The little girl in the café saw something wonderful while her parents missed out. May we never be so distracted by the world’s chatter, or lacking in humility to seek more understanding, that we miss what God wants to show us about Himself.
Reflect & Pray
What first opened your eyes and heart to the gospel? How hungry are you to know more of God right now?
Father God, please open my eyes to see everything You want me to see about You and the gospel.
Learn more about God by watching Asking Who Is God.
Todays Insights
Although the word trinity is never used in Scripture, we see clear evidence in Luke 10 of God’s triune nature. “Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit” praises His Father, the “Lord of heaven and earth” (v. 21). The Son accomplishes the Father’s will by the power of the Spirit. Then Christ speaks of Himself when He says, “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father” (v. 22). But didn’t the disciples know Him? Jesus is using the word knows in the sense of knowing someone completely and perfectly. Christ knew they were in danger of being distracted by the miracles they’d just performed (v. 17). So He turned their focus back to what mattered: “your names are written in heaven” (v. 20). Step by step, He revealed Himself to them. May we also keep our eyes open to see what God wants to reveal to us about Himself.
My Utmost for His Highest
Placed in the Light
BY OSWALD CHAMBERS
If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, . . . the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. — 1 John 1:7
To mistake conscious freedom from sin for deliverance from sin by the atonement is a great error. Sin is what Jesus Christ faced on the cross; it is only through his sacrifice that we have deliverance. Conscious freedom from sin is how I experience this deliverance in my own life; the evidence that I am delivered is that I know the real nature of sin in me. No one can know the real nature of sin until they are born again. It takes the power of Jesus Christ’s atonement inside me—that is, the impartation to me of his absolute perfection by the Holy Spirit—to make me know what sin is.
The Holy Spirit applies the atonement to our entire being—to the realm we are conscious of and to the realm we’re unconscious of. Only when we grasp the full scope of the power of the Spirit inside us do we understand the meaning of 1 John 1:7: “The blood of Jesus . . . purifies us from all sin.” This verse doesn’t refer only to sin I’m aware of; it speaks to the tremendously profound understanding of sin which only the Holy Spirit inside me has.
If I walk in the light as God is in the light—not in the light of my conscience but in the light of God—and walk with nothing hidden, nothing folded up, then I am let in on the amazing revelation that the blood of Jesus purifies me from all sin, so thoroughly that God Almighty can see nothing to censure in me. In my consciousness, this freedom from sin works through a clear knowledge of what sin is. The love of God at work in me makes me hate with the hatred of the Holy Spirit all that is not in keeping with God’s holiness. To walk in the light means that everything that’s of the darkness drives me closer to the center of the light.
Haggai 1-2; Revelation 17
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
The fiery furnaces are there by God’s direct permission. It is misleading to imagine that we are developed in spite of our circumstances; we are developed because of them. It is mastery in circumstances that is needed, not mastery over them.
The Love of God—The Message of Invincible Consolation, 674 R
TELL THE PERSON WHO CAN FIX IT - #10165
By Ron Hutchcraft
December 26, 2025
00:2703:58
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If you live in a place like Florida for example, this word probably doesnt mean much to you - winter, cold, or furnace. See, during the summer you dont give your furnace a thought, but in the winter up north it makes life bearable. Thats why when we lived in New Jersey I was not a very happy camper when I woke up and felt a very cold nose coming out of the covers. (No, I didnt sleep with a dog...it was my nose!) And I felt a cold floor under my feet where there was no carpet. And then I would peek out the window and see a very low temperature out there.
Now, my first stop was the furnace downstairs. If it wasnt working I knew what to do. I called our family doctor. You say, "What? You dont call..." No, thats right, I didnt call the doctor. I called our neighbors and told them the furnace wasnt working. You say, "Wait a minute, what good does that do?" No, I called the newspaper delivery boy and said, "My furnace isnt working!" I called the post office and said, "Hey, can you fix my furnace?" You say, "Ron, none of those calls will help. Call the furnace man!" I did.
Im Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Tell the Person Who Can Fix It."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Matthew 5. We begin at verse 23. Jesus said, "If you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember your brother has something against you, leave your gift..." He says forget the religious stuff. Dont do your spiritual thing. No, "leave your gift in front of the altar. First (in other words, before you do your thing with God), go and be reconciled to your brother, then come and offer your gift."
Theres a parallel passage in Matthew 18:15 - "If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over." It talks about involving other people from the church if that doesnt work. But the pattern is the same in both cases - go straight to the person. Now, were not talking about a furnace here, but were talking about a relationship thats not working. And Jesus addresses one of these dark corners of human nature.
Weve got this tendency to talk to everyone about the problem we have with this person except the person we have the problem with. And that sin divides families, it divides friends, it divides churches, it divides ministries, and maybe you are in the middle of one of those poisonous situations right now. Jesus says theres only one way to go when you have a problem with another person - straight to that person.
Wed rather gripe to other people, wed rather gather support for our side, get sympathy, form some power block of people who agree with us, and give the Devil an open door he can drive a truck through. The irony is that none of those other people can fix whats wrong. The problem youve got is with this person.
Now, we know it would be dumb to tell the letter carrier about our cold furnace, or the garbage man. Wouldnt that make you ask, "Hey, do you just want to gripe or do you want a solution?" Then why do we go to all the wrong people when theres a break in a relationship or some hurt? Going to the person involved is the only way it can really be fixed. You can be a relationship radical if youll covenant to go direct in a world that would rather gossip and backstab.
You can be an agent of real love and real peace if you always stay away from the back room, the back-biting, and you speak directly to that other person. That other person? They may respond or they may not respond, but you have done the only thing Jesus can bless, and you can sleep well tonight.
So, whether its a furnace, a family member or a friend, tell the person who can fix it
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