Tag: joy

How to Find the Joy We Seek

Posted on by Dorci

One of the greatest joys of being a parent is watching your children come through childhood, with all its arguments and competitiveness and jealousies, grow up, forgive each other, and become good friends. 

To see your children making plans to get together, to sit and have a conversation, laughing and enjoying each other’s company, there’s just nothing like it. Seeing the love between them fills a parent with a delightful contentment. 

I imagine this is a tiny fraction of the joy the Lord has when He sees His children maturing and growing in His love and then loving one another, forgiving and accepting one another in the spirit of godly brother and sisterhood. 

The apostle Paul, along with Timothy, wrote to brothers and sisters in Philippi, sounding almost as a father writing to his children:

“Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from His love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.”
Philippians 2:1-4

There is nothing so easy to fall back into when surrounded by the world than a worldly, fleshly, prideful, egotistical, argumentative attitude. Kind of like children, right? And the very antithesis of love.

But we don’t need to live that way. 

We are filled with the Holy Spirit, the One who makes known to us God’s love.

And daily we have a choice: we can walk in the Spirit, or suffer in the flesh. 

When we walk in the flesh, not only do we rob God the joy of an unbroken abiding relationship with us, made complete by seeing His children love one another, we rob ourselves of the joy and the peace we all so desperately want and need. 

“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace…”
Galatians 5:22a

Love is the first fruit of walking in the Spirit, and all others depend on it. Love brings joy, and joy brings peace. 

“I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.”
Galatians 5:16

As we walk in the Spirit, we won’t be held hostage by our fleshly attitudes. Yield ourselves to the life God’s given us, day by day, moment by moment, and the Father’s love will flow through the Spirit to us, and through us to others. 

What an amazing privilege.

To know God’s love, a love far deeper than any the world can ever know, and to allow ourselves to be a conduit of that love for our brothers and sisters, and even for our enemies who so greatly need Him, glorifying and magnifying the Name of Jesus.  

“It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us. And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another. And this is love: that we walk in obedience to His commands. As you have heard from the beginning, His command is that you walk in love.”
2 John 1:4-6

In His Love,

 

 

 

Sunday Praise and a Prayer for Perseverance

Posted on by Dorci

Dear Heavenly Father, we praise you. We praise you for all you are and for all you do. You are our King above all kings and we look to you and you alone to provide for us, to give us courage, to open and close doors, to show us the way. You are not only the God Almighty who was, and is, and is to come, but You are our Father who lovingly cares for us in Your power and victory. 

Thank You for the strength You give us as we walk through long trials. We sometimes get tired and weary, but as we hold out a hand to You, You lift us up.

You invite us to take your yoke upon us so you can lift the weight of our trials, and that through them we can learn from You and Your gentle and humble heart, and find rest for our weary souls. 

Father, help us persevere through the prolonged difficulties we face. Help us continue to keep our focus on you, daily dying to our flesh and being filled with your Holy Spirit, seeing through your eyes of grace and mercy. 

Help us not get restless as we wait for your deliverance, but give us patience and your peace that surpasses all understanding.

Help us to “do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that we may become blameless and pure, ‘children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.’ Then we will shine among them like stars in the sky as we hold firmly to the word of life.”  

Fill us with your joy and hope at what’s to come, and through them may we  encourage and build each other up until that day. 

Thank you, Father, for your love and faithfulness to keep all your promises. May our faith rest confidently in You. 

In Jesus’ name we pray, amen. 

The Spotless Lamb

Posted on by Dorci

I’ve talked about The Chosen, the series about the life of Christ, and the Christmas special that started it all, and I want to share with you that Christmas special. 

You are taken back to the night when the angel of the Lord spoke to the shepherds, shining God’s light into the dark of night, and into the spiritual darkness that filled the whole world. 

This tiny, promised Christ child brought hope and joy for anyone who would turn and follow Him, and He still does. 

My prayer is that if you’ve never turned to Him in faith, you would do that today, right now. In your own words call out to God and and tell Him you need Him, that you believe He sent His Son, Jesus, the Savior, as both the Spotless Lamb given as a sacrifice for our sins and the Shepherd who would continually lead us, and that you desire to follow Him. 

And if you’ve put your faith in Jesus in the past but you’ve walked away, a little or a lot, it’s not too late. God loves you and He’s waiting for you to return. Call on your Heavenly Father, confess your sins, and turn and follow Jesus again with your whole heart. 

God’s Word says “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9

Believe this, and He will do it, and the peace of God will fill your hearts, even in the middle of the turmoil we face in the world, as much today as it was in the time of Jesus’ birth.

There is no better gift to give the Lord, and nothing else He desires more, than our hearts.

I pray this Christmas Special blesses you as much as it does me.

 

Merry Christmas!

 

God of Hope

Posted on by Dorci

 

Now may the 
God 
of hope
fill you with all joy and 
peace in believing, that
you may abound in 
hope, in the power of 
the Holy Spirit
Romans 15:13

Remain Steadfast

Posted on by Dorci

 

STEADFAST


The Lord has been putting this word on my heart lately. 

Remain steadfast. 

“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.” 
1 Peter 5:8-9

This is Peter telling us this.

Peter, the one who told Jesus he would never deny Him – even if he had to die with Him.

Peter, one of the apostles whom Jesus took and asked him to pray the night before He was arrested, and then fell asleep.

Peter, the one who impetuously drew his sword and cut off the ear of the high priest’s servant. 

Peter, the one who vehemently denied Christ three times. 

But all that doesn’t make him less credible; it makes him more. 

He’s saying don’t do what I did! He learned what the devil had been up to and he wanted to warn his brothers and sisters in Christ to be aware. 

To remain steadfast in the faith – steadfast in our convictions, steadfast in the truth, steadfast in our reliance upon Christ and Christ alone, now and forever. 

The devil’s ways are the same as ever. he’s looking for people who are at a weak place, who aren’t being alert and vigilant to the devil’s ways, who aren’t steadfastly trusting in the power and righteousness of Jesus Christ. 

Right now, when the world seems like a raging sea, is an opportune time for the enemy to try to discourage us, to trip us up, to question Jesus, and maybe even walk away from Him, even a step. 

But we who are in Christ can confidently “lay hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever…” 
Hebrews 6:18b-20

No matter what happens in this life, we don’t have to give in to fear and be tossed around in the waves of confusion. We have an anchor of hope.

We have the promises of God, all of which in Christ are yes and amen. His promises are for this life and extend all the way behind the veil that lies between this life and the next.

Our sure hope, our anchor in rough seas, is that Christ is with us now, and He will surely call us to live with Him in His home where we’ve laid up treasures beyond comprehension, and where love and peace and joy are the way of life.     

And we’re reminded of this hope every time we pray, every time we read God’s Word, and every time we enter into fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ. 

Our steadfast anchor of hope will keep us steadfast, too.

“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”
1 Cor 15:58