Walk in His Joy
Minute by Minute!
Here we are in the third week of Advent already! I pray that amidst the preparations for Christmas you are staying focused on the real ‘reason for the season.’ May this phrase never become a cliché that is spoken in haste without a real understanding and depth of awareness of Jesus Christ this season and always. May He reign in your heart and bring immeasurable joy minute by minute into your life.
Joy is the focus of this third week of Advent. Joy is a feeling of great happiness. Joy is exhilarating. Joy is surely contagious. If you walk closely with the Lord joy is a facet of the fruit of the Spirit. No one on this earth can take this joy from you if you are Christ’s. It is your choice if you relinquish His gift of joy.
With What Increments Do You Measure Your Life?
The Lord graces you minute by minute to wash afresh in His blessings, peace and joy. Joy of the Spirit is yours if you are His. Guard it. Hold onto it. Embrace it minute by minute. He is with you always…minute by minute!
There are certainly seasons in your life that your circumstances can seem overwhelming and dampen the joy that is yours in Him. Just remember, that in the world you will have trials and tribulations. Do not let them steal your joy!
The times we are in are treacherous to be sure. Fear can creep into your heart so easily if you fail to guard your heart. It is crucial now more than ever to cherish the gift of joy that is yours in Him.
Your assignment as a Christ follower is not to allow trials or the daily news to disrupt your walk with Him. In less than a minute you can become derailed from your walk and from His joy. In less than a minute you can become knocked off track if you are not vigilant. In less than a minute stress, anxiety, fear and depression can fast track you down a path you need not embark.
Where is Your Joy?
Maybe you lost your joy somewhere along the way a minute, a day, a week, a month, a year or even decades ago. Perhaps life now seems arduous and a struggle minute by minute. It is never too late to renew your relationship with the Lord and once again walk in His joy. Diligently seek Him this minute and reclaim your Kingdom position on earth as it is in heaven. Allow Him to fill you with the fruit of the Spirit to include His overwhelming joy! Do not spend another minute living beneath your Kingdom position in Him.
Seize Each Minute!
The Lord’s desire for those who follow Him is to live with joy and to bring that joy to others minute by minute. In less than a minute you can choose to walk infused with His joy that flows out to all you encounter. Seize the moment and take back the ground you may have relinquished. God’s promise is restoration. God’s promise is to multiply seed planted in your heart thirty, sixty, a hundred fold. Let the fullness of the fruit of the Spirit with its joy component be planted deep in your heart and produce exponential fruit in your life.
Guard your minutes. Hedge them with His protection for your minutes become your hours, your days, your months, your years. Ultimately, your minutes are your life. Your minutes are precious and only available in 60 second increments. You know not the number of your years but you do know this minute and each minute He gives you. Live minute by minute deep in His grace and enveloped in His joy freely available to you. Walk with Him minute by minute! Walk in His joy this minute, this week and always.
Please Join Me in Prayer
Father God, We thank You for sending Your Son Jesus Christ to set us free. Grace us to deepen our relationship with You above all earthly distractions. Renew a steadfast spirit in each of us. Let joy overflow in each of our spirits and spread exponentially to all we encounter. Empower us to walk in Your joy minute by minute and to take Your joy to a dark and dying world. Great is Your faithfulness, oh God! We thank You that You keep Your hand on America. Forgive our sin and heal our land that we will remain One Nation Under God. We pray this in Jesus’ mighty name. Amen and Amen.
Quotes To Ponder This Week
“Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed… Some seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, multiplying thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times…” ~Jesus, Mark 4:3, 8
“These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” ~Jesus, John 16:33
“So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the crawling locust, the consuming locust, and the chewing locust, My great army which I sent among you. ~Joel 2:25
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is not law. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.” ~Galatians 5:22-26
“But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” ~Hebrews 11:6
“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” ~James 1:2-4
“Be sober; be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” ~1Peter 5:8
“Almighty God, our Father, we have no fear because Thou art on the throne of the universe. Establish us in Thy love and fill our hearts with joy and courage that we may triumphantly meet every experience of life. Through Jesus Christ. Amen.” ~C.G. Lunan, Third United Presbyterian Church, St. Louis, Mo., Strength for Service to God and Country, Abingdon-Cokesbury Press, Nashville, Copyright 1942
“If the day and the night are such that you greet them with joy, and life emits a fragrance like flowers and sweet-scented herbs, is more elastic, more starry, more immortal-that is your success.” ~Henry David Thoreau, Daily Whispers of Blessing, 2014, Barbour Publishing, Day 216
A Prayer Request
Thank you for your continued faithfulness to pray. Please keep all who serve our country, our diplomatic corps, our servicemen and women and their families in prayer for salvation and safety. They are our front-line on the battlefield, let us be their front-line in the spirit. Also, let us cover all who have come home wounded that they and their families will receive the kindness, help and support they need to go forward in their lives. May the Lord bless them and keep them safe. Pray for all throughout the world for hedges of protection against radical Muslim extremists and all forms of terrorism. We have long prayed for spiritual victory over radical Islam in Esther’s Warriors Ministry. We now see the reality of this threat come to the forefront in this time in world history.
Please pray for all in authority over us, for the full truth to come forth concerning Benghazi. We as Americans and the families of those murdered in Benghazi deserve to be told the truth. Pray that God will open doors to let the truth on all that has been hidden flow for all of us in this United States of America! The truth shall keep us free.
Pray for peace in Israel. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Pray for Christians throughout the world that face violence and death for their faith.
May God richly bless the United States of America, bring to light every single crooked place and keep her safe. May we arise united once again as One Nation Under God in this auspicious season in our country’s history. We continue to pray for truth to prevail as we saturate this country in prayer and stand for all that is right in America and for all of us who call ourselves American. These are treacherous times and now more than ever we must maintain our walk. Fail not in this hour. #Pray for America.