Hunger - 4.17.21

Real Life Devotional Series “Hunger” – Week 1 - Saturday – Pastor Todd
Joy in Holiness
Jude 24-25 (NIV)

"To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy—to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen."

When God is at work in our lives, it brings all sorts of things. It brings conviction and correction.  Because he loves us, he challenges us to walk more like him. It also brings inspiration and instruction.  We grow wiser in how to live in this challenging world. It brings blessing and favor.

 We see answers to prayer and God-sized work that we have never seen before.
God’s work in our lives also brings joy.  Never let holiness be equated with unhappiness. Melancholy is not a fruit of the Spirit. Now don’t mistake what I am saying here.  When God is first in our lives, it doesn’t mean we won’t have hard days, challenging conversations, achy joints, or auto accidents.  What it does mean is as we walk away from the unholy and embrace the holy. There is a joy to that kind of living. Many years ago, Diane and I wrote a simple little jingle called Joy in Holiness; I will leave you with those lyrics:

Now some folks think that holiness means never having fun
Staying bored throughout their lives until their time is done
Stacking up the rules and laws until it weighs them down
Getting to the end of life with nothing but a frown

But the Bible says that holiness means living pure and right
Bringing joy unto our God while walking in the light
Rejoicing that from sin and death we have been set free
God commanded holiness just for you and me.

There’s joy in holiness, it’s the right way to go
There’s joy in holiness, it’s time we let it show
That there’s joy in holiness in a world that needs to know
There’s joy in just obeying the Lord