Today, we're going to take a posture of peace by accepting nothing less than full joy.
Hi, I'm Lindsay Van Zale.
Posture is a podcast that serves a short audible fist bump to remind you that God is in everything.
Together, we're going to be emboldened to take a daily posture of perfect peace.
In John chapter 15 verse 11, Jesus said,
These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
This week, we've been talking a lot about joy and the partnership of peace and joy.
And some of you know my story of coming across Jesus's promise of peace.
It's really the starting point for this entire posture podcast.
You can hear about that in episode one.
I'll go ahead and link that for you.
Basically, when I came across John 14, 27, I was captivated by the promise and the possibility of
having Jesus's peace.
And just like with that promise in John 14, I have been equally captivated by this other
thing that Jesus promised in John 15, his joy, that his joy would be in us and that
our joy would be full.
I'm so captivated by the possibility of full joy because often my joy has felt fragmented,
pieced together by good things happening, but so often disrupted by negativity.
And I have settled for that disruptive rhythm for years.
And yet I have been promised so much more.
You have been promised so much more.
These promises we find in scripture, I know it can be tempting to believe that, well,
if it's true, then it's just going to happen.
And if it doesn't happen, then it must not be true.
I used to believe that for a really long time as if my own limited experience was the thing
that proved whether or not Jesus was a liar.
I know that's harsh, but that was the implication, right?
This kind of living only leads us to double-mindedness.
It leads us to doubt and unbelief.
And that's a disruptive rhythm.
The truth is these promises are an invitation.
And they're an invitation that we are to receive.
And we receive these promises by putting them into practice.
And you're not alone in that process either because John 16 says the Holy Spirit is our
helper.
He guides us in all truth.
So you're not alone to figure it out on your own.
You're not striving to make these promises happen.
You are simply putting your faith into action.
What does that look like in real life?
I mean, I shared a testimony about what this could look like in yesterday's episode, and
I'll link that in case you missed it.
I have so many testimonies right now of full joy because as I mentioned, God has been highlighting
this promise of joy to me specifically in the season that I'm walking in.
So I'm practicing it a lot right now.
And I know for me, it's so helpful to hear other people's testimonies to be able to get
a grasp of what these promises look like in everyday life.
So if you have a testimony of joy or peace, please share it in the comments.
I would love to hear them.
I know others would as well.
Again, I'm going to share another testimony of what it looks like to have joy arise in
the midst of a hard situation because I think many of us can relate to this situation.
And I know it's helpful for us to see what this looks like in everyday life.
Something that used to disrupt, I would say, my joy and my peace often was relational conflict.
It was hard to have joy and be at peace when there were disagreements with friends,
misunderstandings with colleagues, arguments with family members, any of those things.
For me, and maybe for you as well, if I wasn't at peace with people,
I felt like I couldn't be at peace at all.
And I definitely couldn't be happy or joyful until that conflict was resolved.
I'm sure many of you know this, though.
Not every relational conflict gets resolved or gets reconciled like we hope for, like
we strive for.
And a while ago, I was talking to the Lord about a particular relationship in my life
that had basically disintegrated, and I had carried a lot of grief about it.
And I would start to feel like I was making progress, like I was moving forward and getting
over it.
And then something would happen that would just trigger all the emotion again and trigger
that conflict again in my head and my heart.
And so much so that there was not a day, really, that went by without me being affected
by the grief of that broken relationship.
So you can imagine my joy and peace were not there.
And I was talking to the Lord about it because I was like, look, I don't even know what I
want anymore.
I don't know what I need.
I can't even pray a solution.
Like, you know how we try to pray, like, Lord, if you could just do this, that would fix
everything.
I couldn't even do that.
I just was very well acquainted with the grief.
And I sensed the Lord in that moment.
When I went to him, he said, what is your biggest grief right now about the situation?
And I thought about it for a while.
Before I realized the answer and that is
Lord, they'll never fully understand how much they have hurt me and
He said that's correct
And then there was silence and it was just he was allowing me to come to terms with it. Honestly, you know
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
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
pain with him
you know being my comfort as I processed it all and then I sensed him say and
You'll never know
How much pain you've caused them and that is my mercy to you both
And it was in that moment above all the noise and the hurt of the grief of the situation
There came a greater awareness of who God is
His mercy his goodness his faithfulness his sovereignty his justice his rightness in the middle of so much wrong and
from that awareness
Thanksgiving shifted my perspective and joy and peace that's always there by the way because he's always there
It rose up within me
Today, I believe the Lord wants to show you who he is in the midst of your greatest need
Your greatest pain your greatest grief I
Have learned that joy and peace. They're not about living in denial of the hard things. They're about living in
acceptance of what Jesus died to give you
his
fullness
The promise of perfect peace is found in Isaiah 26 3 and in Hebrew it is shalom shalom
meaning complete
Wholeness nothing missing nothing broken. This is who you are in Jesus
Let's declare this together
Today, I am kept in perfect. Peace with my whole heart. I trust the Lord
I am strong. I am victorious. I am whole
Remember friend you are a living testimony of Jesus's ultimate win
Not because of anything you did but because of what he did for you with every step you take today
You're putting Jesus's victory on display and Satan's defeat on replay