The Devotional – 1065 – Love, Joy and Peace

The Devotional – 1065 – Love, Joy and Peace

What might be the thoughts that race through you mind when you see the words – LOVE, JOY and PEACE put together? Frankly! If you are bent on living life in accordance with your own will, these words are quite foreign to you and have no REAL or I should say LASTING definition. In fact, within a short time you will have forgotten and moved on to some personal quest that may or may not provide you any comfort at all. So then the best for me to say to you is “Happy New Year” this is the common response of those around your circle of influence who within that same short time have forgotten themselves to be happy. Again frankly! Happy New Year and we’ll see you next year which is less than twenty-four hours away. (A SHORT TIME)!

CHALLENGES & COMMENTS – VARIOUS SCRIPTURES

John 14:25-31 – "These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. You have heard Me say to you, 'I am going away and coming back to you.' If you loved Me, you would rejoice because I said, 'I am going to the Father,' for My Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe. I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me. But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave Me commandment, so I do. Arise, let us go from here.

John 15:9-17 – "As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. These things I command you, that you love one another. 

Love, Joy and Peace are more than just WORDS in those verses of scripture above. These are the ever-lasting attributes that belong to a PERSON whose name is Wonderful or Counselor, for that matter both Words are His Name since He is the Mighty God, (Isaiah 9:6). Just a week ago we said of that Baby (who was born over two thousand years ago) that He was and is Immanuel which in all languages is – God with us. The point – no one hates a baby, do they? The world though hates God! Think about this in the coming year, our actions speak louder than words… so I hope we will all seek to express LOVE, JOY and PEACE in Christ our LORD. May our New Year be full of His attributes.