The Perfect Joy, Peace and Strength Found by Abiding in Jesus

John 15:4
Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.

Where do we find ourselves today? Are we happy with our circumstances? Are we challenged by our trials? Are we frozen by our fears? These questions are irrelevant if we are abiding in Jesus. If we follow His command to abide in Me, we will not have a care about where we are, what we are doing or what is going on around us. In this place of abiding, we will find our lives filled with the perfect joy, strength and peace of the Lord. Whatever we find ourselves doing will be completely satisfying and will bear much fruit. What freedom and power we find when we abide in Our Savior!!

On the other hand, if we are leaning on the world or on our own natural abilities, we soon find out how fearful and impotent we are. Just as the passage suggests, we are destined to experience a withering away when we separate ourselves from the True Vine. We are sure to enter into a poor, fruitless condition. Why would we ever consider living in any other way except fully dependent on the True Vine?

Let us bring our fears to the Lord and let Him deal with them. Let us vanquish the giants in our lives in the name of the Lord. Let us bow in awe and wonder before Almighty God, acknowledging His great power and might. Let us become the mighty warriors that He has created us to be.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we bow in awe and wonder before You. We acknowledge and thank You for the fullness of the joy and the power that we receive when we abide in Your Son. We pray for the strength to place all of our fears and worries at Your feet. We ask for the courage to move forward knowing that all things are possible when we place our trust in Our Savior. May we always seek the grace, nourishment and strength that we need from our all-sufficient source, Jesus Christ. We ask all these things in His precious, holy and mighty name.

Seeing Ourselves Gripped in the Hand of God

Matthew 6:34
So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

God has a perfect plan and purpose for our lives. He commands us not to fret or worry about our circumstances. He promises that He will work out all things for our eternal good if we seek first His kingdom. It is His plan that we come to Him daily with our prayers so that He may give us the strength we need to overcome our trials and so that He may set a hedge for us against the temptations that will be flung our way.

We must seek to find hope and joy in our circumstances as we learn to trust in God to fulfill His promises in our lives. We should avoid seeing ourselves trapped by our worldly trials. Instead, we should seek the comfort and peace of seeing ourselves gripped firmly in the hand of God – the only secure place in the universe.

Let us rejoice in the Lord Our God. Let us trust in His promises. Let us seek all that He makes available to us through His Son, Jesus. Let rest in the joy that is provided for those that trust in the Lord.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, thank You for being the author and finisher of our lives. We rejoice in knowing that Your hand is always upon us as long as we abide in You. Teach us, Father, how to look past our troubles in this world and look to the source of our solutions, Jesus Christ. We pray that our focus will always be on Our Savior and not on our problems. We ask all these things in the name of Our All Sufficient Lord, Jesus Christ.

The Protection and Provision of Almighty God

Habakkuk 1:3
Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds.

In this passage, Habakkuk is crying out to God in frustration because of the things he is seeing in the society of his day. Doesn’t this passage sound as if it could have been written today? Who isn’t totally frustrated and deeply concerned by what we see and read in the news every single day?

Perhaps this frustration is carrying over into our own personal lives. Who among us hasn’t cried out to God for relief from the struggles of work, relationships, addictions, afflictions or even sin itself? How often do we begin to lose hope when we do not see immediate relief from our circumstances?

God has a response for us just as he had for Habakkuk when He said, “Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told”. Habakkuk 1:5

In His Holy Word, God is commanding us to look around us to see where He is working. He is not an idle, laissez-faire ruler. He wants us to have faith in who He says He is. He is actively involved in every single event in the world and in our lives. He is controlling all things for the ultimate perfect good of His children.

Let us look for God working in our lives and working in the world around us. Let us look for the wondrous works of Almighty God in each and every day. Let us rejoice in His faithfulness and mercy in our lives.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for all that You do to protect us and provide for us. We thank You for those things that You do that we cannot see. We know that these unseen wonders are never ending for we know that You are faithful to Your promises. We ask that You teach us how to live in complete faith that Your hand is on this world and on our lives. We pray that Your Holy Spirit strengthen us when our circumstances lead us to feel that Your hand is not upon us. May we exalt Your name for all that You do. We ask all these things in the name Our Most Blessed Wonder, Jesus Christ.

When Happiness Eludes Us

Luke 21:19
By your endurance you will gain your lives.

Jesus warned His apostles of the hard times to come. He foretold the trials and persecution that they would suffer after He left. He comforted them with His promise that if they persevered in the ways of God and in the truths that He had given them, they would possess peace and joy in their souls. He also told them that the world would not be able to take away their joy if they lived in the fullness of His presence.

So it is with us. We have our own trials to bear in our lives. The Lord teaches us to let nothing disturb or distress us. He instructs us not to submit to the moodiness that might come upon us due to our circumstances. We must take on the Spirit of the One who dwells within us. We must endure, knowing that we have already been given victory over our circumstances. We must allow Jesus to do His work in us, overcoming the moodiness that our flesh would like to lay on us, so that we can press on and do the work that He calls us to do in the world. May we learn to patiently bear all afflictions on our bodies, bear all attacks and indignities tossed our way by our critics and bear all difficulties dealt to us by the world.

Let us be determined to allow nothing to disturb us, distress us or steal our peace. Let us learn to live joyfully in the presence of Jesus Christ under all circumstances.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for granting us victory through Jesus over everything in the world that tries to take our joy away. We rejoice in knowing that we can have joy even when happiness eludes us. We pray that You will teach us how to seek the strength we need when our mood turns us toward our problems instead of our solution, Your Son, Jesus. May the world see our joy in all circumstances so that they may be drawn to the One who provides it. We ask all these things in the name of Our Stronghold, Jesus Christ.