Joyce knows that the love of God poured into her heart, springs forth as the fountain of life. Without this, she would be living, but not experience being fully alive.
Joyce witnesses that to enjoy the depths of God’s love we need to be in tune to the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We need to spend time alone with God being ministered by His Word and Spirit. Indeed, as we experience the perfect love of God come to us in Jesus Christ, God begins to transform us into Christlikeness.
The first and great commandment is: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37). We need to carefully exercise the restraint of temperance, lest we follow our own wanton desires to distraction, or become enslaved by passions, the enemies of our life in God. The wise king Solomon wrote, “Good judgment wins favour, but the way of the unfaithful leads to their destruction” (Pro. 13:18). In consequence, we will be able to “abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul” (1 Peter 2:11). Then we will not find it a burden to share with our neighbour what we would have normally held back. God turns our selfish love outward, and helps us include others.
God freely promises to give all things necessary to those who do not withhold themselves from the needs of others and in doing so love their neighbours. God, as the source of all goodness, is the source of our ability and disposition to love others. He can turn the stingiest of people, into the most loving, as He transforms them into His likeness.
Our intimacy with God becomes sweet as we learn to discover how wonderful He is. This experience further promotes the love of God. We begin to realise that when we have God, we have everything, and indeed the fountain of life flows through us to bless others.