The Stability of Our Joy
Staying Alert – Part VI
Scripture Reading: 1 Peter 1:13-25
Key Verse: John 16:22
“… then you will rejoice, and no one can rob you of that joy.”
Because of its importance and its difficulty, I want to spend one more day on forgiveness.
I closed out yesterday’s devotional with Jesus’s command for us to pray for our enemies. You may not see the people that need your forgiveness as enemies, but in a sense, they fit into that category.
When I first start praying for someone that has hurt me deeply, it feels fake. I feel more like hurting them back than blessing them. When this is the case, I simply admit it to God and ask Him to help me get to the point where my prayer is more sincere.
Of course, honesty about how we feel is not news to God. He knows our every thought. But honesty about how I feel about being hurt by someone helps me to keep on praying for them and asking God to bless them. I have found that when I am faithful to do what Jesus tells me to do, He is faithful to help me be that forgiving person that I want to be.
Over the last several devotionals, I have given practical indicators or “handles” that keep us alert and sober in our walk with God. We do this because we want the “Joy in the Lord” to continually flow through our lives.
Since you are reading this devotional, it is an indicator that want your relationship with God to be strong. Making a devotional time with God in your day is a sign you are alert and sober (remember the definition of sober: to “make or become more serious, sensible, and solemn”).
Unfortunately, some people never really get serious about their walk with God; thus, they know little about the joy of the Lord in their lives.
Jesus obviously wanted us to be joyful about our walk with God. He came to give us life and life more abundant! (John 10:10).
Being serious about your walk with God and having joy in our lives is “two sides of the same coin”!
Father, I am so grateful for the day I said “yes” to your call. Help me to keep your joy in my life. In Jesus’s Name, amen.