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Weekly Devotional for August 29, 2005
Women in Discipleship (sm)
Weekly Devotionals 2005
Week 34
Is the fellowship of believers you worship with experiencing "gladness of heart?" This experience was one that the early church witnessed on a daily basis. Joy is a fruit of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5: 22-23) therefore is to be evident in the life of every believer.
Scripture to ponder: Acts 2:46-47a "So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with 'gladness' and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people."
The mark of the church should be joy. This exuberance of God's Spirit among the believers was evident. Everywhere you look in the Book of Acts you see "joy" penetrating deep inside the believers.
Through persecution these believers embraced that one thing that no one can remove from us. Joy in Jesus and the salvation He gives is complete!
Acts 8: 8 states: "And there was great joy in that city. Why? The believers were being scattered away from Jerusalem because of extreme persecution by the religious leaders. Through it they chose to go out with joy because Jesus had revealed their eternal destination. In this scattering Jesus was being spoken of and salvation was spreading! It can be the same with us. When we daily feast on God's Word, share His story and live with joy in our hearts Jesus will come forth in praise and blessing.
What are you doing today to delight the heart of God? The believers shared their lives with one another. How are we sharing in our lives today? Is gladness, simplicity of heart and praising God part of your spiritual diet daily? Let's get together and share God's joy with one another.
Joy is God's gift to us! His joy demonstrated in our lives is fruitful and pleasing to Him! May our Christian fellowship exemplify the joy of Jesus completely.
Blessings in Christ Jesus,
Sandra Davis for the team at Women in Discipleship
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