Experiencing God's Presence #336

I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Romans 15:13

Some days, it’s hard to keep it together. You try to maintain the right attitudes, to stoke your faith and expect God’s goodness, but circumstances seem to be winning the war of the heart. It feels like an enormous effort to keep the internal peace. And that effort sometimes takes energy we don’t have.

That’s okay. God understands those “I can’t keep it together” days. There’s always mercy and the strength available in His Presence, when we can find it. But what we really long for, and what He longs for on our behalf, is that we have the deep-down peace that isn’t an effort to “keep together” because it’s who we are. Sure, trying to maintain the right attitudes is important, but we want to get to the point where we don’t have to try. We want them to come naturally because our hearts have been transformed. We don’t want just to tell ourselves to be at peace; we want to actually have it.

God is getting us to that place. It’s a process; the attitudes of the Spirit don’t come to us instantly. But the more we soak in His Presence and fellowship with His Spirit, the more He fills us with hope and peace. At some point these attitudes are no longer self-imposed. They overflow from within.

Seek that ideal. You won’t be perfect at it, but you can certainly grow in that direction. His Presence calms the storms within you without your having to keep a lid on them. He stirs up hope without your having to manufacture it. He cultivates joy without your having to talk yourself into it. By faith, let Him overflow.

Lord, I want to overflow—naturally, through what You have done in me. I accept Paul’s prayer as my own. Give me hope, and keep me happy and full of peace as I believe.

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