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Glorious Joy

Glorious Joy

Words of Faith 1-10-2020

Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy © 2020

Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com

Faith Fellowship Church - Melbourne, FL

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    1 Peter 1

      [8] Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, [9] for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

 

          Loving someone we cannot see?  We may actually know a little bit about this. Have you ever been separated from or lost someone you loved dearly?  Because of death or distance, you could not see them, but you did not stop loving them.  As time went on, your love may have changed, but you did not stop loving them.  Such love may be different.  The expression is undoubtedly different, but the love is still rich and sweet.  Love remains even when we cannot see or communicate with a person. Such love is based upon the past.

 

          The love we have for Jesus is similar.   We love Jesus, whom we cannot see.  But our love for Him is quite different.  He is present with us by His Holy Spirit.  Our memory of Him is from the Word of God and our experience of Him through the Spirit.  But we also love Jesus because He leads us toward a future.  One day we will see Him!  As we speak to Jesus, we discover that He is alive and drawing us toward that future. 

         Jesus also speaks to us by the presence of His Holy Spirit and through the illumination of His Word.  He fills us with inexpressible and glorious joy.  We receive the goal of our faith, the salvation of the soul. The future becomes evident now. The hope of salvation springs forth within us now.  We love because God is drawing us toward our destiny.  We love Jesus, whom we have not seen.  It is a process as "we are receiving the goal of our faith, the salvation of our souls."

         We soon discover that loving a Jesus we have not seen is not the most challenging thing in the world.  The going gets tough when Jesus asks us to love people that we can see.  There are people that we would prefer not to love.  Some people are difficult to love.

        John, in his first letter, says that when we love Jesus, whom we have not seen, it opens the way for us to love people even when they are not lovely or loveable (1 Jn. 4:12, 20‑21).   Somehow the inexpressible and glorious joy that the Lord puts in us overcomes the barriers that keep us from forgiving and healing and loving.

            How is the love of Jesus in you today?  Are you loving Jesus, whom you have not seen?  Are you allowing Him to plant His inexpressible and glorious joy in you?  Are you answering His call to love some people that you can see and would rather not? 

 

            Lord, Jesus, fill me with Your inexpressible and glorious joy as you draw me toward the goal of my faith.  May that joy overflow and touch the lives of people around me, even those I would rather not see.  In Jesus' name.

 

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The Words of Faith devotion is published five days a week by E-mail, and our website, and our church app, excluding Federal holidays. Please feel free to forward this devotion to a friend who might be blessed by this devotion. Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture is quoted from the New International Version (R) of The Holy Bible. Copyright (c) 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. Words of Faith (c) 1997, 2010 Jeffrey D. Hoy. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to forward this copyrighted material or use portions of it with appropriate notation of the source for non-profit purposes.  

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