Live Free with Josh Howerton - Boundless Joy | Ep. 24 | Thursday March 9, 2023

Episode Date: March 9, 2023

No matter your circumstances, whether they bring joy or sorrow, success or failure, reward or rejection… there is always something to say “thank you” for. This episode is a great reminder to practice gratefulness at all times. For more information, visit lakepointe.church/dailydrive

Thanks for tuning in to today's Daily Drive with Lake Point Church, a daily dose of God's word for your morning drive. When the word, not the world, becomes the majority of your week, your life will start to change. For that reason, our prayer is that God will speak to you through today's devotional. For more digital content to feed your faith, visit lakepoint.comit. And now let's dive in to today's devotional. what is up hope your day is going great my name is mike bro and we're just hanging together every day for a few minutes just trying to navigate this life that god has given us and we're just learning how to walk with him and we're trying to be a light in this world and what we've been doing over the

past few days we've been unpacking a little passage of the bible found in romans chapter 12 it's a letter encouraging us all to live a distinctive kind of life the kind of life that's attractive and causes people to take notice not just of us but of the goodness of god in our life life. And we started about talking about how sometimes you'll hear like a sports announcer going on and on about certain athletes attributes, and then they'll close with it. I don't know, man, they're just built different. Well, Romans 12 gives us a description of what it really means to be built different. And so we're just going verse by verse a little at a time. And I've been sharing some stuff that I've been writing in the margin of my old Bible. In fact, my old Bible's

got duct tape holding it together. Any good Southern guy knows it duct tape can fix anything, right? But I have written a ton of little notes right next to all these verses, and I'd invite you to do the same, not in my Bible, but in your Bible. And I got to admit, I tear up a little whenever I see a few names that I've written next to today's verse, verse number 12. It says this, be joyful in hope, patient and affliction, faithful in prayer. I have the names Sherry, Tandy, Jim, Johnny, Melissa,

and I could name dozens I've known in my life that this verse describes. I mean, the struggles they've gone through and the attitude they chose, the faith they displayed, the joy that just radiated from them is incredible, inspiring for me. And I wrote their names in the margin of my Bible. And one of the names I have written in the margin of my Bible here is Fannie, Hamilton. Some of you've heard me talk about her before. Fannie worked in her high school ministry at the church I served. She was 85 years old working with high school students. Fannie told me she prayed for me every day, and she's one of those people that told you that, like you believed it. Like,

she really did pray for me every single day. Well, I remember I was leading worship one day at church, and I look out in the crowd, and Fannie is sitting in the middle of the high school students, just worshiping her heart out. Now, you need to know this about her. She's, she had a stroke and it paralyzed the right side of her body. And it took her a long time to get ready for a church. Someone would have to come over and help her get ready. But she came every single week. And on this particular day, I look out over the crowd.

And I'm looking at our high school students. There's Fannie sitting right in the middle of it. And she reached over with her good hand, her left hand, and picked up her right arm and just lifted her hands up to God, her right arm up to God, as if to say, even in this, I will praise you. See why I wrote her name down and next to this verse. Be faithful in prayer, joyful and hope, patient and affliction.

Man, it's her. Henry Nguyen writes this. She says, to be grateful for the good things that happen in our lives, that's easy. But to be grateful for all of our lives, the good as well as the bad, the moments of joy as well as the moments of sorrow, the successes as well as the failures, the rewards as well as the rejections,

that requires hard spiritual work. Still, we're only grateful people when we can say thank you for all that has brought us to this present moment. As long as we keep dividing our lives between events and people we would like to forget, we cannot claim the fullness of our beings as a gift from God to be grateful for. Let's not be afraid to look at everything he has brought us to, where we are now, and trust that we will soon see it in the guiding hand of a loving God.

So what do you say today with God's help? Let's be joyful and hope, patient and affliction, faithful in prayer. I'm telling you people who do that, yeah, they're just built different. See you tomorrow. Thanks for tuning in today.

For more biblical teaching and worship, join us for our church online live weekend services on Saturdays at 6 p.m. and Sundays at 9.30 and 11 a.m. Central Standard Time. Also, if this podcast was helpful to you, would you be sure to rate, review, and share this podcast to help get the word out. For more information about all digital ministries of Lake Point, visit lakepoint.compt.combe.