Living Out Joy And Peace (Daily Devotional)

Shalom and thank you for joining us once again for our series on Living Supernaturally. We have been looking into God's word and really understanding how do we live out the fruit of the Spirit. We had discussed about the first fruit yesterday and today we will be focusing on the second two, which is joy and peace. To reiterate that the fruit of the Holy Spirit is the result of the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. The fruit of the Spirit, joy and peace comes because of the presence of the Holy Spirit. Looking at joy first, the joy that Paul refers to in Galatians chapter 5 is much deeper than the sense of happiness or gladness that comes from life's circumstances. It is a delight, it's a profound delight and rejoicing that comes only from knowing and serving God. So, what does living out the fruit of joy look like? Nehemiah chapter 8 verse 10 says, ‘the joy of the Lord is your strength’ which means that the joy that the Holy Spirit brings can be seen in various ways or aspects in our lives. So, practically living out this joy is when we respond in joy instead of responding in despair, when we are faced with challenges or difficulties. When we trust that God is sovereign and faithful, when we know He's in control, we find reasons to rejoice, we find reasons to joyful even in the midst of trials. Another way we live out joy is when we spend time in God's presence, in prayer, in worship, in praise as we meditate on who He is, we experience that joy, we live out that joy. We also find joy when we proclaim what Jesus has done for us, when we praise God for our salvation which we have received through Christ. Our hearts are filled with gratitude when we look at how our sins are forgiven and we look forward to the promise of eternity. This is the way we live out joy. Let's look at the second fruit which is peace. What does living out the fruit of peace look like? Peace is quietness, it is rest and it is serenity. Philippians chapter 4, verse 7 says ‘the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and Minds through Christ Jesus.’ The peace that the Holy Spirit gives is unmatchable, especially when we face anxious and uncertain situations, we experience the peace of God when we turn to Him in prayer and in praise or we live out this fruit, when we surrender our fears and our anxieties to God and trust who He is and His plan even when our situations are unknown, we find that the peace of God is manifested in us. When we express our gratitude to God, it helps us experience the peace fully or when we make attempts to focus on our today, on our present, on our here and now, rather than worrying about our future or looking back at our past, we embrace the peace of God from resting in His promises. When we offer words of encouragement to others, we experience peace and we also become strong testimonies of God's peace to others. So, together both the fruit, joy and peace enable us to experience the abundant life that Jesus promised and we bear witness to His love and grace to the world. Shall we pray, Heavenly Father, Lord, we ask that the Holy Spirit will truly help us experience the joy that comes from knowing you and the peace that comes from focusing on who you are and what you've done for us Lord. Lord, in a world that is hurting, may we be these conduits of joy and peace. May the Spirit work in us to bring these fruit to the people around, thank you for enabling us, in Jesus’s name we pray, Amen.

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Daily devotions to strengthen your faith each day. Daily Devotional for Spirit filled living. Each daily devotion is about five minutes in duration. These daily devotionals are centered around a weekly theme. So there are seven daily devotions that focus on the theme and bring you insight, understanding and revelation from the Bible. Each week’s theme is listed as a series. So you can listen to the current week’s devotions or go to any previous theme/series that speaks to your present need (https://apcwo.org/resources/daily-devotions ). Also available free sermons (https://apcwo.org/sermons), and free Christian books (https://apcwo.org/books) to nourish and strengthen your faith.