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Today, we're going to take a posture of peace by letting joy rise up in us.

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Hi, I'm Lindsay Van Zale.

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Posture is a podcast that serves as a short, audible fist bump to remind you that God is

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in everything.

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Together, we're going to be emboldened to take a daily posture of perfect peace.

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In Hebrews chapter 15, verse 13, it says,

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May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace, as you trust in him, so that you

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may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

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Last week in episode 54, I mentioned that I believe God is developing and maturing His

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joy in me right now, a fresher, deeper expression of His joy as I walk out this season.

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And you know, joy and peace, they partner together in raising our expectation of God's

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goodness in our lives.

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That's hope, by the way, an expectation of God's goodness.

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And they also partner in developing a deeper trust in Him.

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And as I talked about last week with Graham Cook, and I will link that episode in case

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you missed it, we talked about the fruit of the Spirit is who God is.

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It is His characteristics.

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And because we have God's empowering presence within us, His peace, joy, patience, those

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things are already present within us.

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So that means we're not looking to anything external to bring us peace or bring us joy.

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Instead, we are confidently calling them to rise up within us.

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And it's trust that brings joy and peace to the surface in us.

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And you might ask, trust in what?

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Trust in God's nature.

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Trust in who God is, His unchanging, unfailing nature, no matter the circumstances.

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As people of the kingdom, we are learning to live from the inside out.

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First John 4.4 says, greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.

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And honestly, I used to live backwards.

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I used to let my negative circumstances influence my trust in God's nature and influence whether

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I was going to be joyful or peaceful.

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So it influenced whether I was going to experience God's nature.

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Instead of allowing my trust in who God is to be the thing that influences my negative

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circumstances or influences me in the midst of my negative circumstances.

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And as you can imagine, this backwards thinking, unfortunately, led to me only having a greater

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awareness and trust in what the negative circumstances could do to me instead of my being aware of

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and trusting in who God was wanting to be for me in the midst of those negative circumstances.

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And you know, no matter what situation we're facing, I believe there's a core fear.

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And that is, where is this leading?

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What is going to happen to me because of this circumstance or because of this person?

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And I was so fixated on the potential path of where my pain was leading me instead of

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being fully fixated on the promised future that his permanent presence guarantees and

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being fixated on what was already available to me because of who he is.

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And hear me out.

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We don't ignore pain.

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That is dangerous.

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And I would never condone that.

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And I talk about that in episode 39, and I'm going to link that for you to watch.

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I encourage you to watch it.

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We always face the pain, but we do so with God.

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And we face the pain with a trust of who he is.

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He is the one who makes peace and joy possible, not our circumstances resolving or our pain

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ceasing.

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If we waited for those things to happen, for us to be joyful or to be at peace, we'd be

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waiting a long time, maybe forever.

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And this is good news.

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This is good news because God is never changing and our circumstances are.

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So that means what our peace and our joy are founded in is secure.

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It's never changing.

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He's never changing.

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I used to feel so guilty for expressing and experiencing joy in the midst of difficulty

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because somberness felt like the responsible response.

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It felt like that was the response of someone who had control of the situation.

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We need to be somber.

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We need to be serious.

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We need to just keep it together.

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Meanwhile, the one God who I had given full charge and control over my life, he's always

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joyful and he's always at peace.

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And I was afraid to reflect his character in this.

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I don't get it.

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I used to feel guilty for expressing joy and experiencing joy in the midst of difficulty

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because honestly it just felt naive.

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It felt vulnerable and it felt like I was letting my guard down because I thought it

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was all up to me.

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And Philippians 4 talks about how we should rejoice in the Lord always.

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It talks about how we don't have to be anxious.

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It says do not be anxious about anything.

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It says in everything, by prayer, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

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And then it says, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, that will guard

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your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

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You know, anxiety, worry, stress, somberness, they're never good guards, but peace always

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keeps us secure.

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And we're going to talk more about joy and peace this week and their partnership.

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So today I want you to practice letting joy rise up in you.

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And if you're like, I don't know how to do that, a good starting point is to rejoice

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in who God is.

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Rejoice in his nature and allow joy to rise in that.

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Tomorrow I'm going to share a testimony that recently happened to me in the midst of this

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quarantine that illuminates the promise and the process of Philippians 4.

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Have you ever had the opposite of a panic attack?

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I did.

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And I'm going to share more on that tomorrow.

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The promise of perfect peace is found in Isaiah 26, 3.

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And in Hebrew, it is shalom, shalom, meaning complete wholeness, nothing missing, nothing

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broken.

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This is who you are in Jesus.

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Let's declare this together.

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Today, I am kept in perfect peace.

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With my whole heart, I trust the Lord.

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I am strong.

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I am victorious.

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I am whole.

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Remember, friend, you are a living testimony of Jesus' ultimate win, not because of anything

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you did, but because of what he did for you.

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With every step you take today, you're putting Jesus' victory on display and Satan's defeat

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on replay.