Treasured

 

Now therefore, if you will obey My voice in truth and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own peculiar possession and treasure from among and above all peoples; for all the earth is Mine. (Exodus 19:5 [Amplified Bible, Classic edition]) 

    People read this verse and often wonder what an odd word choice God used to speak about people. In today’s understanding, “peculiar” means odd. In the Hebrew language, this word does not mean that. It comes from the word segullah meaning to earn and to acquire. This adjective describes something or someone valuable by which the owner acquired or earned through his or her own exertions. The owner worked for it; he gave something for it. With this understanding of that definition, it might seem unusual for God to say He exerted Himself to possess the people about whom He spoke. 

    Consider these people and through what they went. These people were the Hebrews, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. To these men, God promised descendants greater than the stars of the sky and the sand of the earth. When God spoke to the Israelites through Moses, He called them His “peculiar possession.” In considering the definition of “peculiar” as the Israelites understood it, we realize He meant He exerted Himself to acquire or earn the deliverance of the Israelites to be His own people. This statement takes the hearers and readers to what God did in the Israelites’ lives.

    What did God do before He made this statement? He reminded them of this in Exodus 19:4, “You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagle's wings and brought you to Myself.” God reminded the Israelites and us about what He did to the Egyptians. He caused the crashing of the Red Sea waves to swallow the bodies of Pharaoh and his army. God dried a passage across the Red Sea bed by which Israelites could escape from Pharaoh. His action for them was like eagles’ wings that bore them to safety. God revealed Himself again to the Israelites as I AM, the one and only God, the almighty One and only One whom they should worship.

    With verse five, God spoke to the Israelites using a conditional statement. “If you will obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own peculiar possession.” He gave the Israelites a choice to be His people. When God created humanity, He made them in His image. He gave them the freedom to choose things for themselves. This means people can choose their own way or the best way, God’s ways. Sin occurs when a person chooses contrary to God’s will. Sin, which separates people from God, is the reason humanity needed salvation from the time God created them. With this conditional statement in Exodus 19:5, God, because of His love, allowed the Israelites to exercise their freewill to choose Him for their God or to go their own way. If they chose God, they would obey Him and be faithful to their covenant with Him and He would make them His peculiar possession. Being God’s possession means anything they needed-safety, provisions, shelter, deliverance, redemption, etc.-God would provide. A covenant is a two-way promise by each party to the other party. God chose the Israelites for His own to show His glory to other people and nations. God wanted to be in a relationship with humanity when He created Adam and Eve. At that point, He provided a way for them to receive cleansing from their sins, so they could be holy (see Genesis 3). God did this because He wants a relationship with each person. God’s faithfulness to His covenant with humanity began at creation. His bringing the Israelites out of Egypt continued to show His faithfulness to the promise He gave to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Just as He gave these patriarchs a promise, and they believed in and worshiped Him, He gave the descendants of these patriarchs the choice to covenant with Him. God chose them to be His peculiar people. He gave them the option of joining with Him in covenant. Would the Israelites be faithful to Him by obeying and keeping their promise that He would be their only God?

    One last statement by God in this covenant needs understanding. He said if they kept their covenant with Him, He would do more than provide for and protect them. God said the Israelites would be a kingdom of priests to Him (Exodus 19:6). That may seem like an odd phrase and a big goal to set before any person. Still, we should realize one thing; the calling and ability to be priests for God comes from God. If the Israelites would stay faithful to their covenant with Him, He would be for and do for them what they needed. What did the Israelites need in Exodus 10? Continued deliverance. These two words take us back to the Hebrew word segullah. In its first usage in the Old Testament, in Exodus 15:16, this word meant God purchased them. God said it again in Deuteronomy 7:6 when He told the Israelites they were holy and set-apart to the Lord. The Lord is the one who makes a person holy and set apart. Nothing a person can do gives them deliverance from the stain of sins in his or her heart, mind, and spirit. No one can make themselves holy. In Exodus 19:6, God’s exertion of Himself for the deliverance of the Israelites is what made them holy. In the New Testament, the meaning stays the same, God delivering/redeeming people. The Greek word for redeeming is lutroo. Titus wrote in Titus 2:14, “God gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.” Peter stated the same in 1 Peter 2:9, “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of the darkness into His wonderful light” [NIV]. Deliverance (segullah in Old Testament) and redemption (lutroo in New Testament) mean essentially the same thing, as these verses show. God delivers and redeems people from the sins and people who make them captives. He makes them holy and His peculiar/special possession. God’s faithfulness to His covenant with people spans from creation into eternity. In looking at the past, we notice people proved faithless to their covenant with Him. God has always been faithful to people.

    These three verses hold the nuggets of truth about God and His relationship with humanity. The nuggets are three-fold. First, God makes Himself known to people in several ways, through creation, Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, the testimony of other Christians, the Bible, the Holy Spirit, and biblical teaching and preaching. God wants each person to know Him and has made Himself known to people. The second nugget is God gives people the choice and opportunity to covenant with Him. He calls people to come to Him, to make them holy and call His children. Jesus said in Matthew 7 people should ask, seek, and knock, then they will receive, find God, and have His door opened to them. Romans 10:13 states, “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Peter said, in 1 Peter 1:15, that the Holy One calls people to Himself. Psalm 55:16 says those who call upon God will receive His salvation. Paul stated in 1 Corinthians 1:2, people answer God’s call to them. God said, in Isaiah 65:24, before people call to Him, He will heed and answer them. Many more passages in the Bible speak about God calling to people. He calls them to come to Him and be in a relationship with Him. The third nugget of truth in Exodus 19: 4-6 is that when people covenant with Him through the new covenant Jesus provides, God makes them holy and part of His “peculiar people”. He redeems them and makes them His own. Paul wrote in Ephesians 1:7 that Jesus gives redemption through His blood and the forgiveness of sins. He wrote in Galatians 1:4 that Jesus gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from this evil age. In Hebrews 9:15, the writer says, “For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance-now that He has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.” In Isaiah 44:22, God said He swept away the offense of the Israelites and told them to return to Him because He redeemed them.

    God did not choose only the Israelites to be His peculiar people. He chooses each person He created. He wants to deliver and redeem each person. John said Jesus came to save anyone who would believe in Him in John 3:16. 2 Peter 3:9 states, God does not want anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. 1 Timothy 2:4 says, God wants everyone to receive salvation. The new covenant, given through the death and resurrection of Jesus, is God’s never-ending and perfect covenant offered to people. The Israelites often proved themselves unfaithful to their covenants with God in the Old Testament. With the passing of time and because of God’s mercy, some Israelites returned to their covenant with Him. Still, without the perfect sacrifice for sins, each of them became stained again with their sins. The legal requirement was to offer another imperfect sacrifice to atone for their sins. Jesus, being the perfect sacrifice, need never sacrifice for the sins of humanity again. The holiness of the sinless Son of God gave the perfect sacrifice for humanity’s sins. People need never offer another sacrifice once he or she repents and confesses of his or her sins and trusts in Jesus for salvation.

    The covenants in the Bible have the same basic format. God makes Himself known to people. He gives them a choice to join with Him in covenant-to worship and serve only Him. God provides everything a person needs for life and makes him or her His peculiar (acquired and treasured) possession. With the Old Testament covenants, God acquired the people as His possession by His delivering them from servitude and difficulty. He showed His covenant faithfulness to them. In the New Testament, God acquired believers as His treasured possession through the greatest cost, the crucifixion and resurrection of His Son, Jesus.

    God gives each person the opportunity to recognize Him, turn to and choose Him, and receive salvation through Jesus, be made holy by Him, and be His child (His “peculiar people”). Today, He has shown Himself to you. Will you recognize Him? Will you turn to Him, repent of your sins, and confess Jesus as the Son of God who died for your sins? Once you recognize, repent, and confess Jesus as God’s Son and your Savior, God will make you one of His peculiar people, His treasured child. 

You no longer have to be odd.

You can become treasured. 

The Lord does not delay and is not tardy or slow about what he promises, according to some people’s conception of slowness, but He is long-suffering (extraordinarily patient) toward you, not desiring that any should perish, but that all should turn to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9 [AMPC])

Devoted Love

 

“Shower, O heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain down righteousness; let the earth open, that salvation and righteousness may bear fruit; let the earth cause them both to sprout; I, the LORD, have created it!” (Isaiah 45:8 [ESV]) 

    Almost everyone has stood dominoes in a row on their ends on a flat surface or has seen this done. When any domino falls over, others fall as a reaction of the first fall. People call this phenomenon the domino effect. An action causes a reaction. Our lives are like that. At times, we choose not to follow what God told us. After disobeying, we find the result is not bad, so it becomes easier to go against God’s will more. Before we realize it, we walk so far away from Him that we cannot hear His voice and we find ourselves in trouble. What God said through Isaiah speaks about this. 

    Isaiah 45:8 records several commands from heaven. In it, He commands the heavens to shower from above, tells the clouds to rain down righteousness, tells the earth to open so salvation and righteousness may bear fruit, and tells the earth to cause them to spout. The last section of this verse declares who commanded these actions, the LORD God. 

    Notice the Creator commands different parts of creation to act. From the highest part of creation, the heavens, God commands showers, continual flows of righteousness and salvation, to fall. Descending to the next level, He commands the clouds to rain down righteousness. Finally, God commands creation at humanity’s level to bear fruit and cause it to spout. What does God mean by each of these commands? 

    The first command declares that righteousness and salvation come from the heavens. In biblical understanding, the heavens denote the place God lives. The “showers” spoken of by God are flowing waters. Throughout the Bible, the writers mention a river flowing from the fountain, from God’s mercy seat. He is the source of true salvation, righteousness, grace, and mercy for all people. This means God’s showers from the heavens continually flow from Him with mercy and grace to give salvation and righteousness. 

    The second command God gives is for the clouds to rain down righteousness. Again, only God gives righteousness and salvation. Righteousness is God making a person right, cleansed from sin and made holy. Righteousness is part of God’s character. He is righteous; He never sins. God is holy. A person’s being made righteous by God occurs when he or she professes faith in Jesus as the Son of God and confesses his/her sins for salvation. The salvation by God of a person gives righteousness from God to that person. God alone provides salvation and makes believers righteous. Until a person professes faith in Jesus, the flowing river of God’s grace and mercy does not affect him or her. God does not have to give righteousness and salvation, but He chose to provide for it when He created all creation. He knew people would sin because He gave them freewill to decide what they will do in each situation. This means, before God made a verbal covenant with humanity in the Old Testament, an implied covenant by God to people existed. He planned to provide salvation from sins, guilt from sins, and the judgment of eternal death away from Him for each person. 

    With God’s third command, He orders the earth to open so salvation and righteousness will bear fruit. God addresses the last level of creation, earth. When “earth” appears in this verse, He means people. Once a person professes faith in Jesus, God gives salvation. Salvation is His restoration of each believer to sinlessness in His eyes, a cleansed, righteous relationship with God by Jesus’ death. “For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,” Paul said in Ephesians 2:8 [ESV]. Once a person receives God’s grace (undeserved forgiveness at the expense of holy God) through faith, a relationship with God occurs. This relationship, like any relationship, requires communing with Him in devoted love. Staying in communion with God requires a person to be open to God and grow to know Him better. This explains the analogy God commands that “the earth opening to salvation and righteousness.” A believer devotedly loving God shown by drawing near to Him each day causes growth in his or her relationship with God. 

    The last command God gives through Isaiah is for the earth to cause salvation and righteousness to sprout. God’s fourth command expresses the causal effect of command three for command four. This means open to God and His gifts and you will have a relationship with and spiritual growth from Him. Without a growing relationship with God, spiritual growth, fruit, will not occur. Sanctification becomes stagnant. In this instance, the domino remains standing, but not strengthened in its foundation for stabilization. Spiritual growth may seem the obvious effect from salvation. Yet, some believers reach the end of the honeymoon phase and their find life trouble-free. They begin not relying on God every day and not communing with Him. This causes the stagnation of a believer’s spiritual growth. When times are troublesome, almost every believer seeks God. He or she desires Him and seeks Him through prayer and Bible study. God spoke to this human tendency of not communing with God daily in the fourth command of this verse. He told His children to let their salvation and righteousness “sprout”. Let it grow by devotedly loving God. Devoted love for Him results in believers setting aside time to be with Him each day through prayer, Bible reading and studying, fellowshiping with other believers, and private and congregational worship. Communing with God nurtures and matures the believer to be more like Christ, who is wholly righteous. The result of this maturation of the believer is the bearing of fruit that come from salvation and righteousness. This fruit then leads to obedience to God requiring action and/or thought. Each person will only understand what thought or action God desires by relating to Him through a continual relationship with Him. 

    Stay connected to the Vine. Being connected to the Vina is devotedly loving and communing with God. Once a grape leaves the vine, it withers and dies. Remaining connected to the vine allows the grape to receive nourishment and grow. John said this in John 15:1-2 when wrote, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, He takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit [ESV].” Only God’s righteousness causes growth. Attempts by people to manufacture righteousness fail. God is the author of salvation and causes its growth when a person professes faith in Jesus and stays in a continual relationship with Him. 

    The believer becomes more like Christ and becomes more sanctified when he or she stays in a devoted relationship with God. This shows salvation is for now and for eternity. A growing relationship with God produces a greater faith and sanctification. The growth of righteousness shows by fruits of the Spirit growing in the believer. Paul listed some fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23–love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. God will perfect the believer’s sanctification when he or she dies on earth and arrives in heaven. Salvation is for now, tomorrow, and eternity. God did not intend for it solely to be for eternity. God, through Isaiah, commands the “earth” (people) to “open” (command three) and commune with Him. This means God desires for each believer’s salvation and righteousness to grow (command four). 

    Isaiah 45:22 reiterates verse eight with another command. God commands in this verse, “Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.” A person cannot save him or herself. Sinfulness cannot beget purity like a mule cannot beget a horse. Do not look elsewhere for salvation and a possible way to be righteous. Turn toward God and look to Him. Keep on looking at Him and don’t look elsewhere. When a person takes his or her eyes off God, the dominoes begin falling. Later, after many dominoes have fallen, that person who looked away will recall his or her life while clinging to the Vine. He or she will realize how and when he or she disconnected from God. When we are at that point, we must pray, repent, and return to God. He will restore righteousness to each person who calls on Him. In 1 John 1:9, John wrote, “If we confess our sins, He (God) is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

    Being saved by God is a continuous action. God saves a believer at a point in time. That person, like all believers, is being saved from death, temptation, sin, and guilt each day. One day God will complete in heaven that believer’s sanctification, purification that leads to holiness. Repenting, which leads to confession, means doing a 180 degree turn to look at God. The believer turns and keeps turning toward God and He continues to sanctify him or her each day as he or she repents and confesses his or her sins. Each day, the believer must look and keep on looking at God. Commune and keep on communing with God. Jesus spoke in His Sermon on the Mount about God wanting a relationship with each person by telling people to seek, knock, and ask in Matthew 7:7-8. He said, 

“Ask (and keep on asking), and it will be given to you. Seek (and keep on seeking), and you will find. Knock (and keep on knocking), and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.” [ESV]

     Cling to the Vine. Take in the righteousness God rains down on you. Let the salvation God gives burrow into the ground of your heart, mind, and spirit so that righteousness and the fruits of the Spirit grow. A believer can allow sprouting and growing by staying connected to God, the giver of the fruit. 

    The Lord created everything that exists, including you. He gives righteousness and salvation to you when you believe in Jesus Christ and confess your sins. You only need to cling to the Vine by devotedly loving and obeying God (Jeremiah 2:2). Don’t let the dominoes in life cause a domino effect in your life. Don’t let things in your life lead you away from God. Stay connected to God. Grow in sanctification and righteousness. 

Small Gift, Big Effect

 

“One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to Him, ‘There was a little boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are these for so many people?’” John 6:8-9 [AMP] 

Jesus, before John 6, had been in Jerusalem. He healed a lame man on the Sabbath, and the Jewish leaders harassed Him about it. Jesus taught them about His authority to heal and do it on a Sabbath. He told them He is the Son of God.

After the Sabbath, Jesus crossed the Sea of Galilee. “A huge crowd of people” followed looking for Him (John 6:5). John said in John 6 that the crowds followed Jesus because they saw His miraculous signs. The people observed the big miracles Jesus did, and their curiosity continued about Him and His miracles.

            Notice, the crowds expected big miracles like healing people or raising people from the dead. Many of the ones who followed Jesus turned away from following Him when the Chief Priests’ solders arrested Him before His crucifixion (John 6:66). These people reacted as we often do. We sometimes turn our backs on Jesus when things do not work out the way we want.

How are we often like these early followers of Jesus? They followed Jesus and listened to God’s plan as long as they saw the big things He would do. Jesus amazed these people as they watched Him do the unexplainable. As we read John 6:8-9, we realize Andrew did not discard something small as being unworthy for use by Jesus. Philip realized the enormous task and saw nothing big by which to feed 5000 hungry men. Andrew understood God can use small and large. He recognized God gives small and large blessings and could use them for His purposes, though he did not understand how.

            Consider this in your life. Do you not recognize God even gave you the small things in your life? Do you consider He gave the small things just for you and not for use for something bigger than you? Philip did not recognize God gave the five loaves and two small fish to feed the 5000+ men. Andrew saw, considered, and wondered if Jesus could use them to feed the people. He led the young boy to Jesus and announced he found food but wondered “what good it would be with the huge crowd?” Andrew offered the young boy’s lunch as an answer in how they might feed the people. When he did that, the young boy inwardly conceded his right to keep the food for himself. Jesus showed God’s care for the people and His power over each aspect of life including sustenance, multiplication, sufficiency, and longevity.

            Today, ask God, “What have I not returned to You for Your purposes?” All God gives you is a blessing from Him. Sometimes the blessing is for you to keep and use for yourself. At other times, God’s blessing for you comes as you use the gifts as God guides to help, teach, guide, and/or forgive someone else. Not all gifts are tangible. Nor are they always expensive. Yet, each gift comes from God. Our perception often hides the intangible and inexpensive from our definition as gifts.

God gave one particular gift for each person. Its cost was great. That gift is salvation from sins and death. Christians do not die for the salvation of other people. Jesus did that with His perfect sacrifice. We should willingly die to self and our desires so other people will hear about Jesus, trust in Him, and receive salvation through Him by faith.

What do you now realize God gave you that you need to give back for His purposes?

God, I am a sinner. I’ve sinned against You and people by storing things up for myself because I considered I earned them or because I was totally selfish about what You gave me. Lord, please forgive me for not recognizing You gave me all I have, even salvation. Lord, take this heart of mine and mold it to desire what You desire. Make me desire You more than anything or anyone. Lord, nudge me from my plans to see the people You put around me whom You love. Show me how You want to use me to help them. Help me always to say, “Yes!” to You. Today, Lord, I give all I am and have, no matter how small I consider it, back to You. Thank you for never giving up on me and being patient with me. Amen.

The Advent of Salvation

 

“And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God…” Hebrews 10:11-13 [ESV]

In Hebrews 10:11-12, the writer contrasted and compared the priests with Jesus. He said the priests stood daily to offer sacrifices. Jesus offered one sacrifice and then sat. He did not have to stand daily to offer again. The priests rise daily, but Jesus said, "It is finished." Compare this with when God finished creating the world, then rested on His throne.

People must rise daily to do things. These things are mundane compared to salvation, but we must do these tasks for survival or for a man-made reason. Some of us rise daily to compete to be better than other people. Others rise daily to do good works hoping to get to heaven, but never find assurance of that or rest. Each day we strive for something. Jesus strove for one thing, our salvation. His goal in life was His end game. The “end game” was to provide the only needed salvation for our sins so that any person who believes He is the Son of God, the Savior, will receive salvation and eternal life.

The questions this should make us ask ourselves is, “For what do we strive? What spurs us on and who drives us? Fame, fortune, and self or the Spirit of Christ within us pushing us to live out our faith so other people can know about Jesus.” Neither ways of living and doing earn us salvation. Nothing we can do will earn us salvation from our sins. Living life with the Spirit in us shows people we are Christians, we are saved. People can experience the real, living, and sacrificial Jesus because of our actions of letting the Spirit live in the world through us.

Jesus does not have to rise each day to offer sacrifices for the sins we did since the last sacrifice. His sacrifice was enough to cleanse each person who trusts in Him from all their sins and their consciousness of their sins. He's been sitting on the right side of the Father’s throne since He rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. The priests stand, they rise, each day to offer sacrifices because they are given by mortal, sinful men and are from the blood of impure and imperfect sources. Jesus, the pure Son of God, died sinless for all sinners then rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven. 

The priests rise each day. Jesus sits.

 It is finished.

Truth

 

“For the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed I came from God.” John 16:27 [Berean Study Bible]

Because of the truths of God, Christians can possess peace. John 16 records Jesus said this. Jesus returned to heaven as the conqueror of sin and death because He is God’s Son, the One with power to do these things. The Spirit of truth, whom Jesus sends, lives within people who believe in Him, according to Jesus in John 16:12-15. Jesus said in verse thirteen, “He [the Spirit] will guide you into all truth.” The Spirit is and has truth. He is part of the Triune Godhead. Jesus said, “He [Holy Spirit] will speak what He hears, and He will declare to you what is to come. He will glorify Me by taking from what is mine and disclosing it to you. Everything that belongs to the Father is mine.” (John 16:13c-15) Understand this well; the Spirit of truth is truth and reveals truth. This truth is part of God. Solely, it comes from God and is one of His characteristics; it comes from who He is. God’s being defines truth. The Spirit will reveal to the disciples of Jesus (past, present, and future) the truths of God and about God, Father, Son, and Spirit.

Deliberately, Jesus prepared His disciples for the trials and tribulations they would face by teaching about the Spirit. The soldiers of the temple, commanded by the Chief priest, were soon to confront Jesus and arrest Him. Just as Jesus foretold about them, His disciples fled. Secretly, one followed Him as the soldiers led Him away. This disciple, Peter, denied Him thrice before the rooster crowed, as Jesus foretold. (Luke 22:54-62) Jesus spoke to prepare His disciples for the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual upheaval that would soon come upon them because of His arrest and crucifixion. Jesus explained their grief would turn to joy. (John 15:22)

Lovingly, Jesus prepared His disciples for the trials and tribulations they would face in their near future, and for the trials they would experience the rest of their lives as His disciples. He did not end his teaching with defeatism. Jesus said they would receive joy. These disciples may have wondered with great confusion how joy arose from trials. Jesus told them in cloaked language and metaphors. He gave them a promise to hold on to, a hope for them to realize they would not face the trials and tribulations alone. Just as Jesus walked with and taught them while He lived on earth, He would be with them opening the doorway for them to pray and petition the Father. He explained if they asked for anything in His name, the Father would give it to them. Because of the faith the disciples had in Jesus and because of the love the Father and Son gave them, Jesus told them when they prayed in His name, asking as He desired, the Father would give them what they requested. Though Jesus no longer walked on earth with the disciples, through the Spirit and prayer to the Father, He remained with them. Jesus taught them in John 16:23-24, and 27 to receive complete joy knowing the Father loves them and will give them everything needed. Jesus intended His promises to give them joy in all situations and hope because He is with them through the Spirit.

This joy is not fleeting or based on circumstances. Jesus said this joy, the joy of knowing Him, receiving God’s love, and knowing truth through the Spirit, is complete. Anything from God is complete. Wholly, giving no half measures, He gives from His being. Joy comes from God; it is complete. Joy’s definition comes from God’s character. The disciples of Jesus can gain complete joy because He died, rose to life, and ascended to sit on His throne. His disciples can possess joy because God never leaves His people. They can have joy because they have hope of eternal life no struggle can replace. Completely, the disciples gain joy through God.

The disciples believed Him. They expected the Spirit of truth and joy. They expected tribulation and trials. The disciples knew God loved them. Faithfully, they knew Jesus is the Son of God. They could get and keep peace with this understanding and through His Spirit. (John 16:31-33) Because the disciples had this hope and accepted the truths of the Spirit and acted upon them, they could experience the complete joy and peace the Spirit gives.

Jesus told His disciples He would return to the Father. He explained they would face trials and tribulations. Disciples of Christ can know and act upon the gifts the Spirit gives them. They can accept and live with joy and peace, knowing nothing can separate them from God. God gives the strength and courage to get through hard times. He gives them determination to walk with Him. God gives His Spirit to remind them of these truths. He loves His people more than anything they will encounter. God will never leave nor forsake His children. This hope comes as a reminder from the Spirit of truth and brings them joy and peace.

Take joy! Have peace! Jesus has overcome the world! 

Jesus, I forget your words often, especially when I feel panicked in a tough situation. Help me remember Your love for me. Help me recall You offer complete joy and peace in every situation. No difficulty in life can ever defeat You and me with You. Lord, please don’t consider my fear as doubt of Who You are. You are my Savior, God’s Son. Forgive my fear before I remember You are my strength and hope. Remind me You are with me when I face tough times. Give me Your strength and courage. Thank You for loving me. Thank You for never leaving or forsaking me. You are God and I will not fear. Amen.