What Are We Really Looking For? (Part 2)

Last week we began thinking about the universal desire and need we have for love, joy, and peace. Although these wear different names at times, they are basic, fundamental goals for people that span time and cultures. Many attempts to find and maintain love, joy, and peace have been frustrating, unfulfilling, and impermanent. So, how do we find lasting love, joy, and peace?

We found love, joy, and peace (and many more positive things) in the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:

 “…the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.” – Galatians 5:22

The answer to our need for true and lasting love, joy, and peace is to let the Spirit of God produce it in us. However, these are spiritual qualities, not physical. Some people devalue or even won’t even consider spiritual blessings because they only see worth in physical things. However, we all have to admit that, “All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls away” (1 Peter 1:24). Physical things aren’t eternal. What is? Keep reading in First Peter: “But the word of the Lord endures forever” (1 Peter 1:25).

The reason spiritual things are eternal and are to be valued most is that “God is Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). Humans are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27) – they have a part of them, their spirit, that is like God. If we accept that we are first and foremost a spiritual being (in a physical body) we will desire and value the love, joy, and peace that comes from the Spirit of God. It is why we see worth in all the spiritual things that the Scriptures reveal to us.

So, how does this work? Romans 8:16 says, “The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.” It’s not a voice or feeling, it is accepting the Spirit’s revelation. The Spirit revealed the mind of God in Scripture (1 Co 2:11-13). When our spirits accept and do what God’s Spirit says, then we are saying the same thing as God – the Spirit bears witness (testifies) that we truly are children of God. If we want true love, joy, and peace, then we find, accept, and follow the love, joy, and peace that God, our Creator, revealed through His Spirit in His word.

Most people are looking for love, joy, and peace and aren’t finding it. Look with spiritual eyes in God’s word and you will find true and eternal love, joy, and peace for your spirit.   dd