“Now I am coming to you. I told them many things while I was with them in this world so they would be filled with my joy.”
John 17:13 (NLT)
Jesus prays this on the night before the cross. Knowing what was coming for Him—and for His disciples—He tells the Father that everything He shared with them had one purpose: that they would be filled with His joy. Not a portion of it. Not borrowed joy from circumstances. The same joy Jesus lived with, given to Him by the Father.
This joy does not come from the world. It comes from heaven. Jesus had already shown them the process. In John 15, He said that abiding in Him leads to joy that overflows. In John 16, He explained that when we ask in His name, we receive—and our joy becomes abundant. Now in John 17, He prays that the joy He taught them about would fully take root in them.
This joy is not meant to stop with us. It overflows outward. As we remain in Christ, learn His heart, and love others as He has loved us, our desires begin to align with the Father’s will. Our asking changes. Our prayers are no longer self-centered but shaped by love. And joy multiplies as we see God bless others through obedience, service, and prayer.
Jesus also reminds us that we do not belong to the world. We are sent into it, protected from the evil one, shaped by God’s truth, and made holy through it. The same Spirit who empowered Jesus lives in us. And in the same way Jesus was filled with joy as He served, loved, and gave Himself for others, He now desires to fill us—not partially, but fully—with that same joy, for the sake of the kingdom.