Morning Hope – April 19, 2011
We have been looking at some of the spiritual weapons given to us to battle against strife in our lives. Where there is strife and confusion there is every evil work and we are determined to not let the enemy have an inch of our lives to roam around.
Yesterday we looked briefly at Love, I could teach on love for months if not years, but today let’s move on to the next Fruit of the Spirit as told to us in Galatians 5:22-23. A very familiar scripture, so be careful not to just glance over it.
Galatians 5: 22-23 but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
Our next weapon is Joy. Now if you listen to the world it will tell you joy just means “happy”, and it does on a very low, base level. Biblically it means “rejoice”, in this particular case the word is translated from the greek word for “to rejoice exceedingly”.
This doesn’t mean what you “Feel”, that is happiness. It again means what you “Do”. It’s also a choice, just like love.
You may hear in church circles to not let something “Steal your joy”, well I am here to tell you friend, if they do, you allowed it! 🙂 Strife will try to do just that.
On a very real level, having joy means returning good for evil done to you.
You are trusting God to bring good out of all situations because the Word says that “all things work together for good”
Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God…..
(Please note it does not say all things *ARE* good, but it does lets us know that no matter what situation the enemy or the world tries to throw at us, God is going to handle it and it will work out in the end for our good).
So, if we are trusting God to handle all our situations, when someone is vile, or hurls strife at us we can rejoice exceedingly because our God is on the job! We can walk in Love, and in Joy, as a real witness to what is inside of us working to bring about His good pleasure.
Phil 2:13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. (KJV)
Strife is trying to stop these from working in your life. It is trying to make things not work out for good, it is trying to stop God working in you both to will and to do His good pleasure.
This is the “knowledge of God” that it is rising up against and we use it in return , use the Word when strife tries to sneak in today. Say “Oh no you don’t strife, my God is working *ALL* Things together for good because I love God!”
So when strife is hurled at you, make a choice to not give away your Joy and you will see strife fumble that play! 🙂
Be blessed!
-Kath
Christian Hope - It's about Him! 
Amen, we have a choice!
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You’re singin’ my song! Great post!
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It is amazing to me how the Holy Spirit is teaching godly women all over the world the same thing!!
-Kath
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