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Growing Joy May 16 Devotional

by David Joynt on May 16, 2023


PHILIPPIANS 1:21 | 21 For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain.

At a deep level, our faith can help us be both invested in our lives now and emotionally independent of even the most dire circumstances. If we expect that beyond our death we will be fully restored and united with Christ, the source of life and love, little that happens prior to death and death itself, can really threaten us. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:55, “death where is your sting?”

 

Paul was imprisoned but not depressed or feeling victimized or full of lament, because the imprisonment did not stifle his witness and the worst Roman sentence would hasten his final union with Christ.

 

Do the promises of God shape your expectations?

 

 

Gracious God,

Help us learn to trust Your promises and anticipate our final union with You. Make us independent of life’s ups and downs.

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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