God is speaking this to us today, strength for the journey. Jeremiah 29:11. He has good things for us his people and he wants to bless us, not only with material blessings but also with spiritual blessings. Jesus said he came to give us life and that more abundantly. When we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit we receive POWER, we receive the fruit of the Spirit. We receive love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance. God has given all of this to us so that we can have strength for the journey so that we can have an expected end.
Each of us is on a journey, my journey is different from your journey, and in many ways, it is different from my husband’s journey. Even though we share much together on this journey, our spiritual growth is personal. We need strength for this journey and we obtain this strength only through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, Philippians 3:14.
On this journey we are on we need many things, we need:
Love: Jesus said if we love him we will keep his commandments. He said to love God with all of our hearts, soul, mind, and strength and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. When we love God the love we have for others will grow and then we will begin to understand the love God has for us and it will give us strength for the journey.
Joy: The joy of the Lord is our strength. Fleshly joy is temporary but God’s joy sustains us.
Peace: Jesus said in this journey we are on we will have tribulation, but we can have peace because he has overcome the world. We can have peace that passes all understanding. We can have calm in the midst of the storm.
Longsuffering: I Corinthians 13:4 says, love suffereth long and is kind. When we suffer long we gain patience. Patience towards others and patience towards God. We learn how to wait on God; we learn to allow God to work the process. When we have longsuffering we are not easily provoked by what people say and do.
Gentleness: For us to be gentle of spirit we must be humble and meek towards others. We will be careful of the words that come from our mouths. We will speak life and not death. Whether we realize it or not we will be judged by the words that come out of our mouths. They will either justify us before God or condemn us before God.
Goodness: When we do good we do that which is right and pleasing in the eyesight of God. We even bless our enemies. God has shown mercy to us and we need to be tenderhearted and show compassion to others.
Faith: God has given each of us a measure of faith. He wants this seed to grow and he wants us to trust and believe that every word he has spoken is true and will come to pass.
Meekness: We understand that without God we can do nothing, we understand that God is good and we are not, we understand that if Jesus had not died for us we would be doomed and still in our sin. We would be on our way to hell.
Temperance: We need self-control, the last fruit for this journey. We need to control our tongue; we need to control our minds and our actions. The scripture says to be renewed in the spirit of our minds. Casting down wicked imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.
Testimonies: Our testimonies are very important; Revelation 12:11 says they overcame him by the word of their testimony. Satan does not want us to testify of the goodness of God, he does not want us to tell others of what God has done for us, whatever that something may be.
God said he knows the thoughts he thinks towards us, and he wants us to know this. He left these thoughts in his word. Jesus said in St. John 15:7, if we abide in him and his words abide in us we can ask what we will and it SHALL be given unto us. Jesus said we can become the love of the Father, Jesus said in John 17:22 that we have the same glory he had with the Father. Jesus also said in John 14:12 we can do the same works he did when he was here.
If we allow the love of God to rest, rule, and abide in us and develop his character we will have strength and we can reach the expected end God has prepared for us, eternal life. Praise God.
