God grants us joy and peace on our journey home.

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“For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing,
and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.”
Isaiah 55:12 English Standard Version

Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs, Colorado

When I pray with people who are dying and their families I ask God for two gifts. I ask that God would give them both joy and peace that surpass understanding.

The promise of joy and peace was God’s gift to the nation of Israel.

Through the prophet Isaiah, God promises his people that they will come out of exile for their sin, and, with the gifts of joy and peace leading them, make their journey back to the Promised Land. The nation of Israel would experience death when taken into captivity in Babylon, yet joy and peace will lead them home.

From the moment of our conception to the day we die we’re on a journey home. On this journey God desires that we experience joy and peace, a joy and a peace that surpass understanding.

Through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God gives you his gift of joy and peace now. The road on which you walk is difficult, isn’t it? There are days when you’re cruising alone and the road of life seems level and smooth, but there are other days when the road is filled with boulders and you want to give up.

More than likely there were difficult days when Israel made the trip from Babylon to Jerusalem. Their joy and peace on the journey was rooted in the vision of returning home.

This is also your joy and peace on this journey of life. God has given you a vision of your home, that place prepared for you.

With this vision you and I join the trees in clapping our hands in spite of the boulders we experience.

Copyright Douglas P Brauner