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Growing Joy May 8 Devotional

by David Joynt on May 08, 2023


PHILIPPIANS 1:4 | 4 always in every one of my prayers for all of you, praying with joy.

Paul made his memory a source of joy. Whenever he prayed, he “remembered with joy” his friends at Philippi. Now I find this remarkable and powerful.

 

Remarkable because Paul had a lot to worry about. He had established a church in Philippi, in AD 49. This is described in Acts 16:1-40. Now in prison in Rome, Paul faced an uncertain future and the possibility of death by imperial sentence. His prayers could easily have been full of fear and panic, centered on release from present trials. But remarkably, his prayers were full of joyful memories.

 

Now this is powerful because no present problem can undermine our memories of previous experiences of grace.

 

Take time to remember in detail a time when you have been blessed by a friend.

 

 

Gracious God,

Thank You for the gift of memory, immune from present contamination or corruption, and full of previous joy. Help us change our present with blessed memories.

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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