With a Subtitle: A devotional on Rhoda, Peter, and the overflowing joy found in Christ
A brief Excerpt: Acts 12:14 reminds us that true joy is more than a passing emotion. In Christ, joy can overflow even in surprising, difficult, and ordinary moments of life.
Scripture
Our verse for today comes from Acts 12:14, “Recognizing Peter’s voice, in her joy she did not open the gate but ran in and reported that Peter was standing at the gate.”
Background
As you might imagine, the Greek and Hebrew words for joy and the like occur well over a hundred times in scripture. And its occurrences are for a myriad of reasons and circumstances. Zechariah is promised joy by an angel as he learns that his barren wife is going to have a child who will do great things for the Lord. Jesus taught that heaven is filled with abundant joy over the repentance of even one sinner. When the angel appeared to the shepherds abiding in the fields, their news of Christ’s birth was one of great joy. The seventy-two that Jesus sent out on mission returned full of joy because the demons were under their power and control. When Jesus spoke profound and eternal things to His disciples, He said He did it so that His joy would be in them and it would be full. There was much joy in Samaria when Philip was in town performing all sorts of miraculous works. And the examples just go on and on. As they should today for you and me. But my question is do they?
Application
For starters, how would you define joy? From your heart, how would you make a visitor to earth understand what Jesus died and rose to have living and overflowing in your soul? Would you be able to note its presence in the anticipation of things, and in the midst of things while learning hard and deep things and while suffering unpleasant and uncomfortable things? Could you relate its abundance in your heart and how its presence in others makes yours well up all the more? The point being, do you have all or any bit of what Jesus fully intended you to have? Can its power and presence pull you from the predictable and ordinary to go share its good news, as it did for Rhoda when Peter arrived? I know that my relationship with joy would fall woefully short of the intention of Jesus and His holy council, and that’s even despite my general resistance to the turmoil and decay of our society and its attempts to tear believers down. So, the hope is that His joy is yours. And if it’s not, only time with Him can address that. You have His word, prayer, sermons, songs, and books. Why not go the extra bit and fully experience His joy?
Charge
As we seek Him today, make your activities and time spent to be about sharing in the joy of Jesus.
Salvation – Eternal Life in Less Than 150 Words
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