Peace Is...

Peace is the fruit of the Holy Spirit that supplies security in Christ, who provides all that is needed for life and godliness. It is the evidence of one who is dependent on Christ to provide the ability to cope with the problems, pain, and perplexities of living. In the midst of conflict we can experience the absence of fear, dread, and impending doom as we rest in the presence of His safety, tranquility, and contentment. A continuous relationship with Jesus Christ overflows with peace that comes from entrusting every struggle to Him. There is strength in knowing that while all around us is in flux and failure, Jesus provides a spiritual stability beyond the normal boundaries of this existence. We experience peace in the presence of finding Christ relevant to our situation even when we cannot be in control.

BIBLE TRUTH

“You will keep in perfect peace
      all who trust in you,
      all whose thoughts are fixed on you!
Trust in the LORD always,
      for the LORD GOD is the eternal Rock” (Isa. 26:3–4 NLT).

HOW DOES THIS APPLY TO ME?
Humanity desires a Christ-less comfort. Submission is too demanding and taxing and infringes on our sense of control. We choose rather to be at ease by creating an environment where the circumstances and situations favor us. Our relational connections to people, positions, and possessions serve to vanquish stress and strain. The pursuit of comfort most assuredly leads to all we have sought to avoid, and results in turmoil. We will evidence the fruit of peace when we cease our pursuit of comfort with its resulting turmoil and find our security through Christ instead.

PRAYER
My Lord, please help me not to worry about anything; but instead to pray about everything. I want to tell You what I need, and thank You for all You have done. I desire to experience Your peace, which exceeds anything I can understand. I know Your peace will guard my heart and mind as I live in You. (Phil. 4:6–7)


(excerpts from Desperate Dependency by J. Kirk & Melanie D. Lewis)


We would love for you to share in the COMMENTS the insights you have received on your journey.

Joy Is...

Joy is the fruit of the Holy Spirit that reflects reliance on God. Jubilantly, a soul connected to Jesus gives tribute to God’s redemptive work. When the conflicts of the heart have been resolved, joy is the result. Such a condition is simply the outward testimony that all is well within.

Joy is the expression of the trusting heart experiencing God—His power to live, His freedom from bondage, His promise of eternal fellowship. The transforming hand of God liberates a life from the prison of oppression when we yield to His design, resulting in joy.

BIBLE TRUTH

“Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever” (1 John 2:15–17 NLT).

HOW DOES THIS APPLY TO ME?
People seem content to counterfeit joy with pleasure. The shackles of the sensual amusements of the world, the flesh, and the devil draw us through the lust of our hearts and the vanity of our lives and bind us in strongholds.

Pleasure does not have to be blatantly sinful. Yet all pleasure becomes sinful when we seek to be complete in it. When Jesus is left out of our lives, the pain of insatiable desires results in depriving us of the hope of fulfillment—futility. We will evidence the fruit of joy when we give up our futile pursuit of pleasure and choose reliance on God.

PRAYER
Father, I pray that You, the source of hope, will fill me completely with joy and peace because I trust in You. I want to overflow with confident hope through the power of Your Holy Spirit. (Rom. 15:13)


(excerpts from Desperate Dependency by J. Kirk & Melanie D. Lewis)

We would love for you to share in the COMMENTS the insights you have received on your journey.

Love Is...

Love is the fruit of the Holy Spirit that enables us to value others with the distinguishing characteristic of sacrificial giving for the best interest of another. God places within us the ability to value Him and others, producing the capability to give while expecting nothing in return. True love can be seen at the cross, where Christ willingly sacrificed everything to be in a relationship with us to fulfill the Father’s purpose. Love promotes the work of God rather than the will of the individual. It is God’s heart in action through us.

God’s fruit of love perfects our hearts with abilities that are alien to the human condition. We are not simply better versions of what we were; we are now something altogether different because of the Holy Spirit’s work that moves us to Christlikeness.

BIBLE TRUTH
“Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance" (1 Cor. 13:4–7 NLT).

HOW DOES THIS APPLY TO ME?
Apart from God, the human heart has no capacity for love. Left to our own devices, we offer only a counterfeit version laden with self-interest as a means to secure our self-centered pleasures. We strive to attain value and worth through people, positions, and possessions, believing we can find fulfillment apart from Christ. This illicit love masquerades in forms that may look noble, but the chief concern is how something will impact self. The ideal of giving to another has been replaced by the idea of gaining for oneself. We will evidence the fruit of love when we resign from the self-centeredness that culminates in emptiness and then allow the Holy Spirit to enable us to value others.

PRAYER
My Father, help me to continue to love others, for I know that love comes from You. I believe that anyone who loves is a child of Yours and knows You. But anyone who does not love does not know You, for You are love. (1 John 4:7–8)


(excerpts from Desperate Dependency by J. Kirk & Melanie D. Lewis)


We would love for you to share in the COMMENTS the insights you have received on your journey.

Stop! You're Doing It Wrong!

Driven by the delusion that we can attain independence, we are convinced our fulfillment can only be addressed by our creative solutions. God may have a plan, but we don’t see Him at work in our lives, so we will attempt to achieve satisfaction independently. We attach expectations for God to bring about our plans by employing all His power to accomplish our desires. Deceived, we come to the notion that God is perfectly OK with what we want. The delusion expands to accommodate the idea that our plans are equal to His will. From this perspective God exists for our gratification.

BIBLE TRUTH

“What sorrow awaits those who argue with their Creator.
      Does a clay pot argue with its maker?
Does the clay dispute with the one who shapes it, saying,
      ‘Stop, you’re doing it wrong!’
Does the pot exclaim,
      ‘How clumsy can you be?’”
This is what the LORD says—
      the Holy One of Israel and your Creator:
“Do you question what I do for my children?
      Do you give me orders about the work of my hands?
I am the one who made the earth
      and created people to live on it.
With my hands I stretched out the heavens.
      All the stars are at my command” (Isa. 45:9, 11–12 NLT).

HOW DOES THIS APPLY TO ME?
Our desire for independence clashes with the truth that only God is independent. We wrestle with futility as we strive to convince God that our plan should be His plan. With dashed hopes and thwarted expectations we grow resentful of God and stand in judgment of Him, doubting His love for us. Will you give up your plan for His?

PRAYER
O Lord who rules over all, show me the blessings of trusting in you! (Ps. 84:12)


(excerpts from Desperate Dependency by J. Kirk & Melanie D. Lewis)

His Terms

The nature of our problem is that we work against God’s established order and desire our independence from Him. Ultimately we want to depend on ourselves while being independent from God. We have adopted Satan’s plan to be our own authority while seeking fulfillment in our physical life, quality of life, and even our eternal life. But still we are left incomplete. Our own desires block us from completeness in Christ.

BIBLE TRUTH

“For God in all his fullness
      was pleased to live in Christ,
and through him God reconciled
      everything to himself.
He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth
      by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.
This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault” (Col. 1:19–22 NLT).

HOW DOES THIS APPLY TO ME?
God’s design for life enables us on His terms. He requires brokenness, dependence, and obedience. Our eternal life begins at the point of salvation in a continuous relationship with God. As a result, our physical lives exist for God’s purposes. God gives us everything we need for experiencing an abundant quality of life. Are you willing to give up your willfulness for His purposes?

PRAYER
Lord, remind me that You long to be gracious to me. I don’t want to forget that You wait on high to have compassion on me. You are the God of justice. I desire to be blessed as I wait for You. (Isa. 30:18)


(excerpts from Desperate Dependency by J. Kirk & Melanie D. Lewis)