Joy and Peace by Belief, Hope and Patience by Experience

UV 2190/10000 Joy And Peace by Belief, Hope and Patience by Experience
Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.
Romans 15 v 13

The hope of Israel in Jehovah is our strength, too. Our belief in Him fills us with all joy and peace. We are connected to Jehovah, the God of hope who wants to bless us and give us hope and a future, who has our best interests at heart, who is committed to our well being, through the Manger Leader – Jesus, the greatest of leaders sent by God but born in the humblest of circumstances in order to identify with all humanity. When we believe in Jesus, the power of the Holy Spirit comes upon us and empowers us. The Holy Spirit enables us to overflow with confidence in the promises of God contained in the Bible.

The manger leader or manager is always full of indescribable and inexplicable joy and abundant peace. It is not because of what He has but on account of whose he is. His heart or his will, intellect and emotions are ruled by the Prince of Peace, Jesus. He is assured of the abundant life – abundance in spirit, mind and body, on account of his faith in Jesus. Abundance in spirit is manifested in the spiritual qualities of life of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility and self control. Paul highlights next to joy and hope, the quality of patience. He describes Jehovah as the God of patience. We are with the Lord for the long haul, for eternity and we need to cultivate and manifest the quality of patience in order to receive the blessings of the promises of God. But as we wait with expectancy for the fulfilment, the Holy Spirit fills us with the confidence and assurance that the Lord is with us and will answer our prayers, meet our need, bless us according to His promises. The end results of our lives are joy and peace in the Holy Spirit. What sustains us continually is hope, patience and faith.

Our belief in Jesus is the trigger while the Holy Spirit is the One who completes it or brings to fruition the promise of the Lord. Belief then is the determining factor to decide which “lief” or kingdom we belong to , the kingdom of God or the kingdom of darkness. Being part of the kingdom of God, subjecting ourselves willingly to the rule of Christ in our hearts by means of the Holy Spirit, fills us with joy and hope and makes us patient. Sometimes, the Lord takes us into hopeless situations, desperate times in order to prove to us that He is the God of hope, the only One who can deliver us in the most distressing and hopeless situations. Our belief or faith is tested in this manner to give this experience or the taste of hope. Such experience then produces more hope and joy in us.

Prateep V Philip