But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. Deuteronomy 4:29

Fulfilling Your Joy and Peace

It has been said, “The two most important days in your life is the day you were born and the day you find out why.” I've been a believer in Jesus since I was a child but I never experienced true joy and peace until the day I discovered why I was born. It was to worship and glorify God. True joy and peace came to me on that day.

I had been attending a men's church group when a video series called “Behold Your God” was presented to us. It was a twelve week series with a new video each week on rediscovering the attributes of God. An attribute can be defined as a quality, characteristic or distinctive property of being. Even though I felt I was a “Christian” for many years I had spent my life giving lip service to a God I did not fully trust and which I had made in my own poor and weak image. He was an idol. A weak God of my imagination. I had lost the connection to the God of the Bible; a God whose being and characteristics were mighty and beyond full comprehension.

I began to study the power and character of the One True and Living God and came to a new insight. I found a God who is eternal, holy, limitless, impassible (not governed or overcome by passions), all powerful, all knowing, everywhere present at the same time, full of love, capable of wrath to judge unrighteousness, full of grace, peace, and mercy, slow to anger yet mighty to save (Nahum 1:3), full of splendor and majesty. The list can go on and on.

I chanced to read two classics on the attributes and holiness of God, The Knowledge of the Holy by A.W. Tozer and The Holiness of God by R.C. Sproul. Tozer's answer to experiencing the awareness of God's attributes is simply “reacquaint thyself with your God.” Acquainting myself with my God in His true Being drove me to my knees in worship. And that's when true joy and peace came to me for the first time in my life.

I take time every day to read the Word of God. I start in the Old testament and read through the New Testament reading a chapter a day. I find it is helpful for me to read with a commentary although that isn't necessary. I find it helps me in my understanding of the Word. I pray through a written prayer list. But before I begin I have a printed list of God's attributes I go over, thanking, praising and worshiping God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit for the Their unity, power and strength. I practiced worship every day until it got easier and easier. God is pleased with the feeblest attempts to know Him and to seek Him. As we take each day to do this He leads us into a deeper and more satisfying walk and establishes peace, joy and righteousness in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17). For myself I've found my worship time to be my most fruitful. God said if we seek Him with all our heart and soul He can be found. As you do He can meet you where you are and become your fulfilling joy and peace.

Ken