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Growing Joy May 15 Devotional

by David Joynt on May 15, 2023


PHILIPPIANS 1:20 | 20 It is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be put to shame in any way but that by my speaking with all boldness Christ will be exalted now as always in my body, whether by life or by death.

 

Hope is vulnerable to worry about things we cannot control. Paul cannot control many things from jail. He can’t visit his churches and communication is slow. He can’t control his own immediate legal situation. But notice his focus on what he can control. He can control his own conduct and witness. His hope is focused on the impact of his own life. He sees the other side of his imprisonment. He has an opportunity to talk to the imperial soldiers who guard him and to build up the local Christian community that can visit him.

 

Do you focus your hope on things you can control?

 

 

Gracious God,

You are running the universe and exercising ultimate control over history. Help us to trust this reality and focus our hope on the things we can impact.

Amen.

 

About the Author
David Joynt

Dave Joynt began his service as a pastor at Valley Presbyterian Church in Paradise Valley, Arizona in September 2014. This meant a move away from the Northeast, where he has a long history, growing up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and then serving congregations in Delaware and New Jersey for a total of 23 years.

Dave was nurtured in a great church in Bethlehem where his parents, Anne and Carey, served as elders. He graduated in classics from Lehigh University where his Father taught, and then from Oxford, where he met his wife Julia. Ordained in 1988, he completed a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1993.

He and Julia have a son, Tristan, and a daughter, Madeleine.

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