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Today, we're going to take a posture of peace by accepting nothing less than full joy.

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Hi, I'm Lindsay Van Zale.

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Posture is a podcast that serves a short audible fist bump to remind you that God is 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 John chapter 15 verse 11, Jesus said,

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These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

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This week, we've been talking a lot about joy and the partnership of peace and joy.

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And some of you know my story of coming across Jesus's promise of peace.

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It's really the starting point for this entire posture podcast.

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You can hear about that in episode one.

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I'll go ahead and link that for you.

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Basically, when I came across John 14, 27, I was captivated by the promise and the possibility of

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having Jesus's peace.

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And just like with that promise in John 14, I have been equally captivated by this other

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thing that Jesus promised in John 15, his joy, that his joy would be in us and that

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our joy would be full.

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I'm so captivated by the possibility of full joy because often my joy has felt fragmented,

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pieced together by good things happening, but so often disrupted by negativity.

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And I have settled for that disruptive rhythm for years.

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And yet I have been promised so much more.

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You have been promised so much more.

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These promises we find in scripture, I know it can be tempting to believe that, well,

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if it's true, then it's just going to happen.

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And if it doesn't happen, then it must not be true.

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I used to believe that for a really long time as if my own limited experience was the thing

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that proved whether or not Jesus was a liar.

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I know that's harsh, but that was the implication, right?

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This kind of living only leads us to double-mindedness.

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It leads us to doubt and unbelief.

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And that's a disruptive rhythm.

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The truth is these promises are an invitation.

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And they're an invitation that we are to receive.

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And we receive these promises by putting them into practice.

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And you're not alone in that process either because John 16 says the Holy Spirit is our

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helper.

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He guides us in all truth.

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So you're not alone to figure it out on your own.

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You're not striving to make these promises happen.

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You are simply putting your faith into action.

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What does that look like in real life?

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I mean, I shared a testimony about what this could look like in yesterday's episode, and

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I'll link that in case you missed it.

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I have so many testimonies right now of full joy because as I mentioned, God has been highlighting

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this promise of joy to me specifically in the season that I'm walking in.

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So I'm practicing it a lot right now.

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And I know for me, it's so helpful to hear other people's testimonies to be able to get

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a grasp of what these promises look like in everyday life.

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So if you have a testimony of joy or peace, please share it in the comments.

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I would love to hear them.

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I know others would as well.

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Again, I'm going to share another testimony of what it looks like to have joy arise in

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the midst of a hard situation because I think many of us can relate to this situation.

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And I know it's helpful for us to see what this looks like in everyday life.

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Something that used to disrupt, I would say, my joy and my peace often was relational conflict.

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It was hard to have joy and be at peace when there were disagreements with friends,

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misunderstandings with colleagues, arguments with family members, any of those things.

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For me, and maybe for you as well, if I wasn't at peace with people,

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I felt like I couldn't be at peace at all.

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And I definitely couldn't be happy or joyful until that conflict was resolved.

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I'm sure many of you know this, though.

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Not every relational conflict gets resolved or gets reconciled like we hope for, like

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we strive for.

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And a while ago, I was talking to the Lord about a particular relationship in my life

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that had basically disintegrated, and I had carried a lot of grief about it.

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And I would start to feel like I was making progress, like I was moving forward and getting

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over it.

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And then something would happen that would just trigger all the emotion again and trigger

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that conflict again in my head and my heart.

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And so much so that there was not a day, really, that went by without me being affected

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by the grief of that broken relationship.

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So you can imagine my joy and peace were not there.

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And I was talking to the Lord about it because I was like, look, I don't even know what I

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want anymore.

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I don't know what I need.

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I can't even pray a solution.

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Like, you know how we try to pray, like, Lord, if you could just do this, that would fix

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everything.

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I couldn't even do that.

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I just was very well acquainted with the grief.

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And I sensed the Lord in that moment.

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When I went to him, he said, what is your biggest grief right now about the situation?

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And I thought about it for a while.

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Before I realized the answer and that is

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Lord, they'll never fully understand how much they have hurt me and

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He said that's correct

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And then there was silence and it was just he was allowing me to come to terms with it. Honestly, you know

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I'll never get to share my side of things. I'll never get the opportunity to fully explain all the details of my hurt

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I'll never see the look of understanding in their eyes and the Lord just allowed me in the silence in his presence to face that

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pain with him

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you know being my comfort as I processed it all and then I sensed him say and

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You'll never know

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How much pain you've caused them and that is my mercy to you both

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And it was in that moment above all the noise and the hurt of the grief of the situation

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There came a greater awareness of who God is

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His mercy his goodness his faithfulness his sovereignty his justice his rightness in the middle of so much wrong and

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from that awareness

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Thanksgiving shifted my perspective and joy and peace that's always there by the way because he's always there

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It rose up within me

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Today, I believe the Lord wants to show you who he is in the midst of your greatest need

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Your greatest pain your greatest grief I

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Have learned that joy and peace. They're not about living in denial of the hard things. They're about living in

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acceptance of what Jesus died to give you

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his

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fullness

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The promise of perfect peace is found in Isaiah 26 3 and in Hebrew it is shalom shalom

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meaning complete

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Wholeness nothing missing nothing broken. 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 with my whole heart. I trust the Lord

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I am strong. I am victorious. I am whole

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Remember friend you are a living testimony of Jesus's ultimate win

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Not because of anything you did but because of what he did for you with every step you take today

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You're putting Jesus's victory on display and Satan's defeat on replay