Righteous, Peace, and Joy in the Holy Spirit

Hello again. I'm back! I've missed writing my blogs because they keep me focused on what I need in my life. One of the Bible Studies I wrote several years ago was entitled "Disregard the Distractions by Focusing on the Father." I have allowed too many distractions to blur my focus lately. Of course, I know I am powerless to remove them on my own, so I have spent time in prayer this morning addressing those and asking the Lord to remove them for me. He is always faithful and He always hears my prayers. One thing He reminded me of just this morning is that His nature is not that of a magician who with a wave His hand pulls a rabbit out of a hat and suddenly everything is rosey. As Christians we have a responsibility to live our lives as He has instructed us in His Word. The simple act of obedience will change our lives. I teach a ladies' Bible Study on Wednesday evenings at my church. This summer we have studied righteousness, peace and joy. Also, how to hear the voice of God. As a teacher, I feel these studies are probably more for me than anyone who attends the study. A researcher by nature, I dig deep into the Word for each study topic and God, without fail, always shows me someting I never knew before. That's the special joy of Scripture. It meets you where you are. An example for me recently is found in Romans 14: 17-19 "For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men. Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification." For some background on this Scripture, Paul speaking to believers in Rome about not giving such a a hard time to other believers who choose not to eat certain meats or because they esteemed one day more sacred than another. He was telling them not to pass judgment on each other. In this instance the Scripture could be interpreted to mean righteousness being respect to God by obedience to His teachings, peace being respect of others, and joy being respect to ourselves, that joy coming from the Holy Spirit who resides within us. Hopefully others will see and understand that this joy is not something we ourselves automatically have, but is gained only through the Holy Sprit. This is what the Lord has impressed upon me. In order for me to have joy, I must first have righteousness. If I have righteousness, I will have peace. If I have peace, that leads to joy. One does not exist without the other. It is like a cycle that repeats and repeats in the life of a Believer. Let me expound. First of all, when I accepted Christ as my Savior as a child of 9, I was made righteous in God's eyes. When Jesus died on the cross he shed his blood and became a sacrifice for my sins, past, present, and future. Because Jesus paid the price for my unrighteousness, when God sees me I am spotless and righteous before Him. When I arrive in heaven if God would ask who I was, Jesus would say, "This one's with me." Therefore, from the moment of my salvation I have been made righteous. Salvation is a free gift from God, BUT, there are things I need to do to as a Christian. I need to be obedient to the Word. By doing so righteousness becomes a lifestyle. God does not expect us to be perfect. No one is perfect. We are going to sin. That is a given. But as Christians, we should be striving to live every day in obedience to God. Are we going to fail? Yes, we will. But we can't just live our lives like the rest of the world and expect to reap peace and joy because there are consequences to sin and to disobedience. Just as you would discipline your child for not obeying you, God disciplines us. Just as your child will suffer consequences for disobedience to his parent, we also suffer consequences when we disobey our Father. In Romans 6 the question is "Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?" In other words, since Jesus died for all my sins and by grace I have been saved, can't I just live any way I want to? Why would you want to? Of course, you can do what you want, but your life will not be peaceful or joyful. Remember, sin is fun – but only for a season. Let me share with you some Scriptures that tell us what living a righteous life will mean: "You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy." Hebrews 1:9 "Light is shed upon the righteous and joy on the upright in heart." Psalm 97:11 "Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall." Psalm 55:22 "For surely, O Lord, you bless the righteous; you surround them with your favor as with a shield." Psalm 5:12 Scripture also tells us in James 5:16, "Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man/woman is powerful and effective." Do you want your prayers to be powerful – effective? Lead a righteous lifestyle. Determine to be obedient to God in all things. I know it is not always easy to lead a totally righteous lifestyle. We live in a tainted world where television commercials would have made my daddy blush if he were still here on earth. Our movies, sitcoms, entertainment are full of immoral acts. Sexual immorality is seen by the world as the norm. Still, the bottom line is that we all have a choice how we live our lives. Unrighteousness does not encompass only the type of sins that are obvious. Many times there is some area of our life that we don't perceive as sin. That's when the Holy Spirit begins to convict through circumstances. I will give you an example from my own life. The Lord recently convicted me of the sin of gossip. I repeated something to 2 people that I learned later was not true. I had to go back to the people to whom I had repeated the falsehood and apologize. How embarrassing is that? Embarrassed as I was, I knew I had to set the record straight. Also, I doubt I will be repeating things I have not first verified. Even then, perhaps I have no business sharing some things. Right? Ephesians 4 tells us to live a life worthy of our calling. If you are a Chrisitian, God has called you. Every day when we wake up we decide what we will do that day, what we will expose our minds to, what thoughts we will entertain. We have to purposefully set out each day to die to self and commit that day to live for God in every single thing we do. And if we do that, the payback is greater than any sacrifice we think we are making. Look at Isaiah 32:17-18. "The fruit of righteousness will be peace; the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever. My people live in peaceful dwelling places, in secure homes, in undisturbed places of rest." When there is more than one person in a home it is hard at times to maintain peace. If you have raised or are raising children you may understand this more than others. God tells us that if we are living righteously we will have quietness and confidence, not just for today, but forever. Our homes will be peaceful, secure (safe), and places of undisturbed rest. That tells me that I will be able to sleep because I won't have a guilty conscious. Is your home a war zone where strife abounds? Better do a peace check-up. Just one person not striving to live a righteous lifestyle can make a home anything but peaceful and undisturbed. Sinfulness invites an unwanted guest, Satan. And with Satan come chaos and strife. We can also learn from David's words in Psalm 4:8 that God and God alone gives us safety to sleep in peace." "I will lie down and sleep in peace for you alone, O Lord make me dwell in safety." And now for one of my favorite Scripture - Psalm 85:8-13. I love, love, love this passage. "I will listen to what God the Lord will say; he promises peace to his people, his saints – but let them not return to folly. Surely his salvation is near those who fear him, that his glory may dwell in our land. Love and faithfulness meet together; righteousness and peace kiss each other. Faithfulness springs forth from the earth, and righteousness looks down from heaven. The Lord will indeed give what is good, and our land will yield its harvest. Righteousness goes before him and prepares the way for his steps." God will speak peace to his people through the Holy Spirit. Peace is only spoken to those who turn from sin. Let them not return to folly – folly is sin. Backsliding is folly. When we return to sin we are backsliding. God's salvation is near those who fear him. This does not mean those who are afraid of God, but those who revere him, love him, show him honor and glory. My favorite verse is 10, "love and faithfulness meet together; righteousness and peace kiss each other." I think of the old song lyrics "love and marriage, love and marriage, go together like a horse and carriage; you can't have one without the other." When you love someone you are faithful to them, aren't you? Those two elements go together. A kiss is an outward expression of love and affection. We kiss someone we love – our sweetheart – our children – our parents. There is a direct relationship between righteousness and peace as we have already seen, so this verse just as plainly as can be shows us you can't have one without the other. They are joined, one being the result of the other. One not existing without the other. If you want peace and joy, you must be born again. If you want that peace and joy to continue in your life, you must be obedient to God's instructions. Here's the formula: righteousness=peace=joy! Have a blessed day in the Lord. I love you, but God loves you much, much more!