1 Peter 1:8-9 “Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” Today's episode talks about how we might have seen God in our lives, even though we might not have known it was God. It also talks about the joy of the Lord that we feel at times. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Inexpressible and Glorious Joy
1 Peter 1:8-9 “Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”
I asked my friend to choose a verse for me while I was at a retreat. She chose this one. I am not sure I knew this one, and yet I love it. I know I say that a lot. It is true God is so good, and there are countless verses from the Bible that I love. I love this one because it ends with the salvation of our souls, and who wouldn’t love that? As much as I love this verse, I know it is a hard verse to accomplish.
It can be hard to believe in something we can’t see. When I first read this verse, I thought it was pretty easy because I was thinking about how many of us haven’t seen God before, and yet we love Him. The retreat I was at was filled with women who all believed in God, and yet we had not ever seen God. We all had different degrees of faith and possibly even different beliefs in God. However, we all believed that God was looking out for us and that He was our Lord and Savior. How is this possible?
When I got to thinking about it, I wondered if it is true that many of us haven’t seen God before. Yes, it is true that we have not seen God in person, like those who walked with Jesus did. However, I think many of us see God in our lives often. Maybe not every day unless we are specifically looking for Him, but we do see Him working. Even if it was only once, we have probably seen God. The question is, did we know it was God when we saw Him?
Did we know that the kind person who paid for our coffee was the face of God? Did we know the person who held the door of the elevator was the face of God? Did we know the person who was in front of us at the store was the face of God? Did we know the stranger who said a kind word was the face of God? Did we know the breakthrough we received at work was a gift from God? Did we know it was God who helped us through that jam? Did we know it was God who made that awesome thing happen?
I am blessed to have had parents who saw God working in everything they did! I am blessed to have parents who saw God everywhere they went. They knew without a shadow of a doubt that God loved them, and they loved Him. However, we are not all that lucky. Some of us didn’t grow up with parents who pointed out all the ways God was helping out their family. Yet, even people who didn’t grow up learning about the faith can still believe in God. My friend Catherine didn’t grow up learning about the Lord, and yet He found her right when she needed Him most. God is good like that. He will come and chase us down and reveal Himself to us when He knows we will be open to it. I am sure God reveals Himself to us more than once, and He keeps revealing Himself to us until we are ready to see Him.
I think we are able to love Him even though we can’t see Him because we can see His work in our lives. We can believe in Him even though we can’t see Him because we can see all He has done in our lives, all He has done for us. If you look throughout your life for places where the Lord has been, I know you will find them. Now that my friend knows Jesus, she can see where He showed up for her all throughout her life. She didn’t know it was Him at the time, but now she can look back and see that He was there. I think this is why we can love Him, even though we haven’t seen Him. We have seen Him. We just didn’t realize it was Him.
I also love this verse because it says, "You believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy.” Have you felt this inexpressible and glorious joy? I have, and it is amazing. I had heard people talk about the Joy of the Lord before when I was younger, and I am not sure I knew what that meant. However, now I know. It is this joy that wells up inside of you when you think about Him. It is this joy you feel, even in the middle of some really difficult times. It’s not a happiness. You are not happy you are in the circumstance you are in, but you are joyful because you know God will take care of you while you are in it. It is unlike any other feeling I have ever felt. It is a joy that you can’t explain to others.
I know someone who lost their husband suddenly. She said throughout the grieving process, she knew the Lord was with her. She said she had some moments of pure joy over the last 9 months. However, she said she could not share them with people because they wouldn’t understand and would judge her for having joy while she was grieving. It wasn’t that she was happy her husband was gone. She missed him very much. It was a joy of the Lord that she was feeling. God allowed her to feel joy in His presence, and it was a magical feeling.
The verse ends with, “For you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” Part of the reason for this joy that we feel is because we know that when we believe, the result will be the salvation of our souls. If that isn’t something to be joyful about, then I don’t know what is. The thought that we get to spend eternity with the Lord definitely brings me joy.
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to the episode today. Lord, we thank you for loving us. We thank you for helping us to believe even when we can’t see you. We thank you for all the ways you show up in our lives, even when we don’t realize it is you. You are so good to us. Thank you for the joy you fill us with. Lord, if there is anyone listening to this who has not felt this joy, I ask that you fill them up with it today. Lord, we love you, and we ask all this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name. Amen.
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. If you love listening to this podcast and you want more, I want to invite you to join my mentoring group. In this group, I will go deeper on topics that will help you grow closer to the Lord and help you live your faith more. The mentoring sessions will be on Tuesday nights at 8 PM EST. If you can not make the sessions live, you can always watch the recording. Last Thursday’s podcast was the audio from the first session if you would like to see what a session will be like. If you have any questions, please reach out to me at catherine@findingtruenorthcoaching.com or CLICK HERE. I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day!
The Word of the Lord for today is “My Children, when life is not as you think it should be, come to Me. Come to Me, I am the source of all good things. So your first response when things go wrong is to come to Me. Come to your God who loves you. Come to your God, who cares what happens to you. My children, your first response, remember, must be to come to me so that I can intercede and help you in your needs.”